Vancouver – Management of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) is announcing that even a modified, lower capacity in-person PNE Fair will not be possible in 2021.
“Despite our planning for a number of scalable versions of the PNE Fair, it is now clear that the number of guests required to make an in-person Fair financially viable will not be allowed under anticipated Public Health Orders this summer,” says PNE spokesperson Laura Ballance. “We understand the implications this decision will have on our staff team, our exhibitor and concessionaire partners as well as hundreds of thousands of annual guests, with whom we will look for ways to connect with once informed about what the summertime Health Orders will allow. We are committed to continuing to work with the Provincial Health Office to see what might be possible as the summer progresses.”
“Losing the second year of the PNE Fair is a massive loss of much needed employment for our members,” says CUPE 1004 President Andrew Ledger. “We are deeply concerned about the thousands of CUPE members that depend on the Fair each summer to pay their way through school or to help support their families,” says Ledger. “We do want to thank the more than 4000 people who have engaged the www.savethepne.ca website and sent letters to the BC government to save PNE jobs, we hope their voices will be heard.”
