The 52nd edition of Canadian Western Agribition (CWA) is all wrapped up after six days of showcasing agricultural excellence with people from across the province, country, and world taking in the premier event.
CWA President Shaun Kindopp said this year’s show raised the bar for future events.
“This week’s been unreal. The positive, the weather, just everything we have been from all the smiling faces, people having fun, getting together, we couldn’t be more proud.”
As for attendance, Kindopp said they don’t have a final number, but he expects this year’s Agribition to surpass last year’s when CWA welcomed more than 120,000 attendees.
He said that while their team did a great job, Mother Nature played a part in the show’s success.
“It’s good that people can get to Agribition safely, but any time that you can wake up in the morning and not have to shovel a foot off your vehicle or have to battle the highways or the elements to be able to get to Agribition, that puts the smile on your face.”
This year’s show also introduced some new things, including the Agri-Tech awards and Spanish bullfighting, and CWA even gave away a pair of tickets to a Taylor Swift concert in Australia.
“We came out with a lot of new stuff, and I think our team hit it head-on. We had a great week, and we are proud of the week that we’ve had.”
For Kindopp, this marked the second year he was the CEO of Agribition, and he said this year he felt he was really able to put his own stamp on this year’s event.
“Last year was a lot of fun and was a lot of learning and this year was trying to put a bit more of a stamp on it and put a little bit of my own spin with it along with the team.”
While there were many highlights from Agribition for Kindopp, he said the Spanish bullfighters are something that stood out to him.
“We took a bit of a risk, and you never know what’s going to happen when you bring 20 Mexican fighting bulls and fly people from across the world,” he said. “I think that they’ve been a phenomenal hit. It wasn’t in their contract to stay and perform during the rodeo, but they liked it; they wanted to perform.”
With the curtains drawn on this year’s edition of Agribition, Kindopp expressed his appreciation for everyone who came out during the six days.
