After a break for two days, the Saskatoon Exhibition is back for its second stretch this year.
The eight-day event reopened on Wednesday and goes from noon to midnight, daily, before concluding on Sunday.
The 2020 Saskatoon Ex was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time in 135 years.
Canadian music icon Tom Cochrane, who performed last weekend at the grandstand, said he was pleased to be playing in his first show in nearly two years since the pandemic hit.
“This is my lifeblood — getting out and doing shows — and I love it. I love spreading that joy. I love the energy I get back from the audience,” he said.
“We’re glad we’re back out there and able to put some smiles on people’s faces because we need that. People need that interaction. We need music. We need that ability to celebrate with each other and celebrate life.”
Cochrane said the pandemic was tough on everyone and musicians are mindful that the battle is still ongoing.
“We’re mindful of the fact that we’re winning this battle and it’s the beginning of the end for it. But we’re aware of COVID that we’re not at the end quite yet. So we’re concerned with the safety of our audience and we’re very mindful of that,” he said.
“So we’re trying to conduct ourselves in a way that we would keep in mind a certain COVID protocol … as a band, because we are travelling around, we’re going to other areas.
“I think I speak for a lot of artists that are coming to Saskatchewan. We don’t want to be bringing the virus here because there’s some nasty variants out there that we have to get through. So as people get more and more vaccinated, we’re going to slowly get back to normal.”
Rapper Classified is playing the SaskTel Grandstand at 8:30 p.m. before rock band, Bif Naked, takes the stage at the Kickin’ Horse Saloon at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Attendees can also catch Our Lady Peace on Thursday, Dean Brody on Friday, Blue Rodeo on Saturday and the Crash n’Bash Demolition Derby on Sunday — all at the grandstand.
The first weekend of the 2021 Saskatoon Ex saw an attendance of 75,657 over three days.
Organizers said 216,084 people walked through the gates at Prairieland Park during the six-day event in 2019.
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