Queen City Ex set to open Wednesday

REGINA – The annual Queen City Ex opens Wednesday with 200,000 people expected to walk through the gates.

Every year, midway food vendors try to draw attention by offering something that stands out. This year, it’s called the porcupine corn dog.

“Mixture of little bits of hash browns, combined in a corn dog. We try to make it unique,” said Erick Pam, a worker at Chips on a Stick.

Last weekend at the exhibition in Edmonton, they sold about 500 porcupine corn dogs per day: “We’re the only trailer that had it.”

And if you’re feeling adventurous Phat Dawgs offers sixteen different hot dog toppings.

“Anywhere from fried egg, fried onions, basic chili cheese. Whatever you can think of. Throw it on a hot dog,” said Jason Au, owner of Phat Dawgs.

Food vendors are also cashing in on the bacon craze.

“We got the bacon cheese burger, the bacon foot long, bacon cheddar foot long, pork in the italian sausage,” said Stan Frank, owner of the local food truck It’s All About The Bacon.

More than 400 workers from North American Midway Entertainment were busy setting up Tuesday afternoon. The new ride this year is called The Remix.

“It spins around at a high acceleration rate. It spins you upside down. I’ve been on it a couple of times and it’s a thrill ride in every sense of the word,” said Scooter Korek from North American Midway Entertainment.

One concern this year, due to the stadium build, is parking.

“The most significant impact is we’re down a couple hundred parking spots, which really is the footprint of where the stadium was,” said Neil Donnelly, vice-president of events and entertainment for Evraz Place. “There is a fair amount of parking adjacent to the stadium, at the Lawson and Mosaic stadium area.”