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Prince George, B.C. – The finishing touches are being applied to the 103 annual British Columbia Northern Exhibition (BCNE) which kicks off tomorrow and runs through Sunday in Prince George.

“Preparations are going really well, actually we’re a little ahead of schedule so that’s really nice,” says Talia Bleiler, assistant event coordinator. “The midway is up a lot earlier than anticipated so we’re hoping it’ll be open for the full day on Wednesday.”

Assistant event coordinator, Talia Bleiler

She expects the midway to be “a big attraction, especially for the kids,” and says the return of the rodeo (Saturday and Sunday) makes this year special.

“The rodeo is the biggest thing this year, we haven’t had a large rodeo for about 10 years at the fair so it’s got all of your events,” says Bleiler. “It’s got bronc riding, bull riding, barrel racing, pretty much everything and pee-wee events as well.”

So why bring it back? “We have a lack of rodeo events in Prince George so we find a lot of people are travelling out of town to places like Williams Lake to check out those rodeo events, so we’d like to bring it back here.”

She also acknowledges additional changes such as free parking and lower admission rates (free on Wednesday).

Bleiler maintains the changes won’t hurt the fair’s bottom line.

“No, the exact opposite. We’re hoping that it’ll bring in more families because it’s going to be more affordable for them.”

She says another change this year is the length of the event – five days rather than four – and the fact they’ll be featuring local musicians as opposed to bigger names from out of town.

“Staying local saves us a little bit of money and we’d like to showcase our local talent,” says Bleiler. “We’ve got all of these local participants like 4-H so why not have local music as well?”

As for attendance, she’s hoping it’ll top last year’s take of around 50,000 people.

“We’re hoping to beat that this year, hopefully the rodeo will be bringing in larger crowds for sure.”