One of Saskatoon’s longest-running events is in full swing. The EX is back with all the much-loved favourites, but it has also expanded in a few new ways. “There are more rides and, in a lot of cases, bigger rides,” Peter Jelinsky, manager of signature events for Prairieland, told CTV News. “The roller coaster is back. Some of the larger, taller rides that have never made it here before are showing up. So, there’s a lot more excitement and a lot more thrills than in the past.” Eleven new rides are making their way to the midway this year. It’s expanded from six to eight days this year, and not just fireworks are hitting the skies this year. “What we’ve added to it is a drone show that has a wonderful display in the sky. It lasts about 10 to 12 minutes, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Saskatoon has never had anything like this before, so it’s a first,” Jelinsky said. Then there’s all the stage entertainment. “We’ve got Smash Mouth, Core Blend. We’ve got TLC on the main stage, and then we ended off with Saskatoon Rock, Saskatoon with the Sheepdogs and Whitesnake, both Mason doing a double bill for us on the main stage,” he said. With so many things to see and do at the EX, there’s still one booth that is extra popular. It’s the Spudnuts, where the secret recipe of these unique donuts is kept tightly under wraps. “It was a group of people from the Scouts organization that actually patented the special spices, so it was their patent from their master scientists,” Sharon Odnokon, Food Manager for Prairieland, said. The flour is prepared with the spices at a plant in Edmonton, and the ingredients are top secret. While it’s possible to buy Spudnut flour elsewhere, the special blend of spices used at the EX cannot. The Scouts originally operated the Spudnut booth for 50 years but found it difficult to find enough volunteers to keep up with demand, according to Odnokon. They handed the rights to Prairieland in 1990. Ten thousand spudnuts are made daily during the EX. They are rolled by hand by a crew of about six people. Staff looks forward to their advanced tasting each year. “Everybody’s like, ‘Yay, the spudnuts are here!’ So that’s our little perk,” she said. The weather looks good for this year’s exhibition, and they’re expecting about 250,000 people through the gates by the time it wraps up on August 7. There will be increased security with metal detectors for the second year. The hope is to eliminate incidents like bear spray attacks, which have affected the EX in past years. “We’ve got new software for the metal detectors. They can get very specific as to what they can detect on a human being,” Jelinsky added. The measures are ensuring that guests can focus on the fun of the event.
