Past, present and future of Lethbridge's Whoop-Up Days

Whoop Up Days got its start as agricultural fair A look back at Whoop Up Days origin story as a 19th century agricultural fair. Karsen Marszuk reports.

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — There was no midway when Whoop-Up Days first came to be and it actually wasn't even called Whoop-Up Days.

“In the late 1890s, we're a small farming and mining community of about 2,500 people, we've only been a town for five, six, seven years and in 1896, we formed the Lethbridge and District Agricultural Society, the fourth agricultural society in Alberta,” said Belinda Crowson, president of the Lethbridge Historical Society.

In 1897, the first agricultural fair took place in Lethbridge.

“They take over the old area at Queen Victoria Park and they put on, essentially, an agricultural fair,” Belinda recalled.

“So, you can bring in your animals so you can be judged, you can bring in your produce from your crops or your gardens and they'll judge them. It was a very small one, they know they only had one pig brought in and there were no sheep.”

In 1904, the first parade and rodeo took place in the city. After 14 years at Queen Victoria Park, the exhibition moved to its current site in 1911.

“In the year of 1911, at a new site, they were really trying to build themselves. They brought in the first plane that was ever in Lethbridge, which was the first plane in Western Canada and you could imagine those early planes, they actually had to bring the plane in on a train,” she said.

With no amusement park or arcade games, Crowson said organizers had to get creative.

“Even prior to the airplanes, they brought in hot air balloonists and they would have people with parachutes jumping out of them, so you can imagine rising up over Lethbridge in 1909-1910 in a hot air balloon and then somebody jumping out of it just to amuse you during the exhibition,” she said.

The fair took a brief pause during the World Wars and Great Depression, but when it made its return, Crowson said, there was no slowing down.

“After the Second World War, they really tried to regrow and they did,” Crowson said.

“In 1946, in honour of the Second World War, they held a huge event where Gene Autry came up from Hollywood and was the parade marshal, and they held something in honour of the veterans.”

The midway and rides began to arrive in the 1950s and '60s, according to the Historical Society.

After running for more than 50 years, the exhibition renamed the festival to Whoop-Up Days in 1966.

Fast-forward a few decades to today, and Whoop-Up Days continues to grow each year.

“This was a harvest fair, it was meant to celebrate agriculture,” said Mike Warkentin, Lethbridge and District Exhibition CEO.

“Agriculture is such a huge part of the southern Alberta economy and it's really what we are here to showcase. It's our part, it's why we're building the Agri-food Hub and it's why we want to bring the world here to southern Alberta.”

With the creation of the new Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre, which is expected to be complete by next year’s Whoop-Up Days celebrations, Warkentin said the exhibition hopes to grow the festival for the next 125 years.

“Our focus is going to be heavy on driving people to the region, driving people to southern Alberta and driving investment to southern Alberta,” he said.

“Whether that's year-round with the Agri-food Hub or you'll start to see us bringing elements into our key events like Ag Expo or Whoop-Up Days that bring people to the community for multiple days.”