If there is one thing that is synonymous with the end of summer in Toronto, it’s the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), a massive midway and fair that takes over the exhibition grounds downtown every year for the last 2 weeks of August.
Mini donuts, cotton candy, and caramel apples aside, the CNE is known for its outrageous food offerings that wow visitors every year. This year’s press release on food creations is 6 pages long, to give you some idea of the excitement that surrounds the offerings. This year’s feature seems to be “Butter” – Butter Burgers, Butter Ice Cream, Butter Soda; if you’re looking for an innovative snack, the CNE is the place to be. Other exciting options include the BACONE, a twist on the original cotton candy, featuring bacon and a kick of habanero. If you’re looking for something a little more classic, the CNE will likely have a deep-fried version, including Watermelon and iconic Mars Bars. Come hungry!
Beyond the food, the CNE offers a wide array of entertainment: Games, Rides, Petting Zoo, Shopping, the Air Show, the Super Dogs, which all promise a great way to spend the day with family or friends. Upon arriving, I took a walk through the Prince’s Gates and found myself looking at a rather curious display, which turned out to be a Cirque du Soleil installation called “Revolution”, featuring aerialists who hung from an enormous helium balloon rather than the standard metal apparatus. While it was a bit windy, and therefore the display was cut a little to ensure the safety of the performers, the show was based around the history of the CNE, and anecdotal stories told in partnership with a live instrumentalist, along with the acrobats. A great way to start the day’s activities. I also spent some time wandering through the garden show, the midway, and the highway of games before taking a break for some lemonade and heading over to the concert.
The 16 days of late summer fun also include a full lineup of live shows that take place at the CNE Bandshell, an outdoor amphitheater in the southwest corner of the grounds. The shows typically feature a number of different genres and showcase Canadian talent throughout the course of the annual fair. The bandshell has a show every night at 7:30, and it is free to anyone who has paid the entrance fee for the fair.
The first act on Friday was Nicolina. A local 21-year-old who has been a contestant on American Idol (2022), making it all the way to the top 5, and being the only Canadian to ever reach that stage of the show. The young artist has a wonderful voice, and I was drawn to her fun attitude and positive energy, despite her first song being about trauma! The bandshell was already hopping by the time Nicolina went on for her set, and everyone was having a wonderful time dancing and singing along to her originals and covers over the course of her 40-minute set.
The main reason I braved the crowd at the CNE was for Marianas Trench, a Canadian pop-punk band that has a soft spot for hitting all the summer festivals and events across the country. I have my own soft spot for them, having seen them multiple times over the course of their 25-year career, since their start as a raucous gritty bunch of kids, playing venues like the Cameron House (a fact they joked about during their set) to a well established group that are drawing thousands to see them at the various larger venues across the country and internationally.
They are also one of the few groups with such longevity to maintain the same lineup of members for most of their career, seeing all their turnover at the start, and maintaining the same core group of four members for the past 20 years. Those members are: Josh Ramsay (singer), Matt Webb (Guitar), Mike Ayley (bass), and Ian Casselman (drums). They are all more talented than the instruments they play on stage, however, and all offer additional talents in percussion, brass, piano, vocals, etc.
The group came out to this absolutely packed crowd of fair attendees, looking for something to cap off their day of exploring, families, and kids of all ages who came specifically for this show. They were in for a treat. Josh, Mike, Matt, and Ian were in great form, playing a 20-song set list over the course of the next hour and a half, playing a vast number of their biggest hits. If there’s one thing (besides the music) that always draws me back to see Marianas Trench time and time again it’s the group’s hilarious or heartfelt mid-set stories – Friday’s tales included one about an individual eating an entire rotisserie chicken on the flight to Toronto (with their hands), a history lesson about MT’s first show in Toronto at the Cameron House playing to 30 people, and how touched they were to be playing for crowds of this size 20+ years later, and finally a promise to continue to work for their fans, foregoing the traditional Encore, remaining on stage to play through the final few songs of their set noting “it’s silly, when you know a band has a few hits they haven’t played yet and they leave the stage, you [the fans] are all thinking ‘I smell a rat’; let’s just skip all that, because you shouldn’t be working for us, we should be working for you,” and that they did.
What a fabulous night at the fair seeing Canadian Talent.
By the time this article publishes, the fair will likely be done for the year, but if you’re ever in Toronto at the end of August, make sure you take a day to check out the CNE, or either of these artists when they come through your local town.
See photos below!
