The PNE drew 642,149 guests this year. But can you guess how many tried the cricket grilled cheese? Here’s a by-the-numbers recap of this year’s Fair.
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Labour Day has come and gone, and that means the Pacific National Exhibition has wrapped up another year of quirky food offerings, high-jumping dogs, and cries of “win a house, win a car.”
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This year, the event drew 642,149 guests to Hastings Park, topping last year’s total.
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“We are incredibly proud of what our team delivered this year. This Fair represented an important moment for the PNE,” said president and CEO Shelley Frost.
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“The response to the new programming has been fantastic, and hearing how much our guests enjoyed the variety of shows, exhibits and experiences has been incredibly rewarding.”
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Sunrise
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In her statement, Frost highlighted the newly opened Freedom Mobile Arch, which hosted this year’s Summer Night Concerts, along with the return of old classics, such as the Westcoast Lumberjack Show.
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Here’s a by-the-numbers recap of the 2026 PNE:
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A total of 642,149 guests visited the PNE in 2026.
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This year’s guest count beat last year’s total of 612,404, as well as the 2024 total of 637,920. The attendance figure continues a generally upward trend of visitor counts that has recovered steadily since the pandemic. Before 2020, the PNE regularly pulled in visitor counts above 700,000 each year.
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Nearly 3,000 Frisbees caught by the SuperDogs.
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For its 50th anniversary, the beloved SuperDogs show featured 50 different dogs throughout its 2026 run, including a trio of pugs. During the 60 shows performed over the course of two weeks, there were 2,937 Frisbees caught by the canine crew.
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Tin Lizzy Concessions sold 734 cricket grilled cheese sandwiches.
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Within the slices of grilled cheese, there was a total of 25,189 crickets used in the making of the oddball fair food offering. International Perogies, another popular stop, served up 153,760 perogies, while Bomb Nachos dished out 173,211 tortilla chips. Little Donut Bakery also used 20 kilograms of cherry pie filling to make their PNE-exclusive B.C. Cherry Black Forest brownie doughnut.
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PNE prize home ticket sellers yell “win a house, win a car” an average of 563 times per day.
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This year’s PNE prize home grand prize package is worth an estimated total of $2.3 million and is located in Surrey. The home measures 4,117 square-feet, which is split over three levels, and features seven bedrooms, 4½ bathrooms, and a separate two-bedroom legal suite. The prize package includes furnishings, appliances, electronics, an EV charger and a yard maintenance package. The draw for the prize takes place on Sept. 14.
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Music bingo played 1,935 songs and saw 315 winners.
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Music and live entertainment are always huge draws for the fair but never more so than in 2026 when Freedom Mobile Arch finally opened to fairgoers for the Summer Night Concerts. Among the performers this year were Canadian icons The Guess Who, the Juno-winning quartet The Beaches, and the ever-popular Weird Al, who brought his Bigger & Weirder Tour to the PNE.
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Other interesting figures from this year’s fair include:
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ENTERTAINMENT
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• 216 — How many times Yuki The Juggler had the audience yell “Hai” (はい) during the Fair.
• 141 — Number of triple toe jump rotations landed by Vancouver’s Jeremy Ten as the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz On Ice performance throughout the Fair.
• 360 — Axes thrown in the Westcoast Lumberjacks Show.
• 90 — Chairs carved by the Westcoast Lumberjacks with a chainsaw.
• 1,273 — Pucks shot on the Vancouver Goldeneyes hockey net by fairgoers.
• 88,176 — Lego bricks in the mountain goat display at Sean Kenney’s Animal Super Powers exhibit.
• 417 — Hours it took to build the Lego snow leopard at Sean Kenney’s Animal Super Powers exhibit.
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AGRICULTURE
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• $336,810.25 — Total sales for the 4-H auction.
•227 — Chickens hatched during the Fair.
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GENERAL FAIR
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• 50 — The number of years photographer Craig Hodge has worked at the PNE Fair.
• 212 — Number of hours worked on the canoe by the Canoe Cultures team.
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