The 2019 edition of K-Days saw the festival's lowest attendance in more than a decade.
According to Northlands, K-Days welcomed roughly 702,000 guests from July 19 to July 28—the lowest number of visitors since 688,000 people attended in 2006.
Northlands says rain is to blame.
“It was a tough fair for us,” Northlands President and CEO Peter Male told CTV News Edmonton. “If you look at the weather last year compared to this year, there was a little showers last year, but this year we had four major weather days.”
This year’s attendance was down by over 100,000 from last year’s approximate 808,000 attendees.
“We were tracking well ahead for the first four days, even though we had the Friday night (rain),” said Male. “I would suggest if we’d had the weather around where we had last year, we actually would’ve been ahead of last year.”
Successes
In spite of the lower than expected attendance, Male still considers this year’s fair a success.
“People loved it. They came, they had incredible experiences.”
Along with the traditional rides and midway games, K-Days showcased nightly musical acts on their South Stage.
The South Stage VIP section clocked a 1,500 person sell out for both the opening Friday’s performance by The Offspring, as well as Aqua on the final night.
In total, Male estimates around 12,000 people gathered near the South Stage to take in the Aqua performance.
The future for K-Days
With redevelopment being proposed for Northlands in the coming years, the future venue for K-Days beyond 2020 is uncertain. A fact that Male seems unfazed by.
“Whatever changes, this fair has been here for 140 years. It is not going away,” he said.
Preparations are already underway for next year’s festival at Northlands.
