After two years of toned-down festivities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Whoop-Up Days is back for its 125-year anniversary from Aug. 23-27.
According to Belinda Crowson, president of the Lethbridge Historical Society, the festival has changed quite significantly over the years, but always had roots in exhibitions, displays and agriculture.
The first fair was held for two days in Oct. of 1897, one year after the Lethbridge & District Agricultural Society was formed.
“What they actually had was competitions — cattle, horses. They tried sheep and pigs, but they only had one pig brought to that first exhibition and no sheep,” Crowson said.
“There was also produce brought in to that first exhibition and crops from the gardens.”
Over the years, Crowson said the events typically reflected what was popular in the community at the time. The parade and rodeo were added in the early 1900s.
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Archival photos from the Galt Museum show events like cake competitions and fashion shows in the 1960s. The fair was renamed “Whoop-Up Days” in 1966.
“If you look at some of the old photographs, they had things which–thank heavens they’re not doing now–but they had horse jumping. They had a horse that would climb up and jump into a pool,” Crowson said.
“They had a bicycle in an arena early on, they brought in monkeys before the circus ever came to town.”
“It has a period of time when it was in July, now it’s obviously at the end of August, and it truly is the culmination of summer,” said Lethbridge & District Exhibition CEO Mike Warkentin.
“It’s a really special time to bring the community together.”
Warkentin hinted future initiatives may be “off campus” to help drive more people to other areas of the city. Construction of the Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre has limited space on the grounds this year.
Trevor Lewington, CEO of Economic Development Lethbridge, said the event is a huge draw for the region.
“Anytime you bring in visitors, they’re of course staying in hotels, they’re spending money in restaurants, hopefully they’re spending money in retail stores, and so that’s new money into our economy,” he explained.
But money is also going out.
“You think about the 200 plus temporary workers that have to be hired by the park to actually host the event,” Lewington added. “All the supplies, the materials, the services that the operation actually consumes itself. That’s significant. Past reports that I’ve seen talk about that being multiple millions of dollars.”
However, Lewington expects a successful bounce-back from the slower pandemic years.
“As long as the organizers continue to be creative and look at adapting to what the public is looking for, I’m looking forward to the next 125 versions of Whoop-Up Days.”