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Pacific National Exhibition (PNE)

Since 1910, Vancouverites and visitors from across the world have enjoyed the Pacific National Exhibition (P.N.E.). Today, fair-goers can watch sporting events, hear concerts, and seek out thrills on the rides in Playland. Throughout its long history, however, the P.N.E. has been about much more than entertainment. To its original organizers, the exhibition was about encouraging development in a young province and cementing BC’s place in an almost equally young nation.

When Vancouver was incorporated in 1886, the men and women who populated the growing city were eager to introduce it to the world. The formerly small logging community was quickly becoming a centre of trade and industry in western Canada. Business leaders and politicians like Mayor David Oppenheimer proclaimed the city’s prosperous future and natural beauty. The “Gateway to the Pacific” was, they declared, the place to go for anyone seeking wealth and adventure.

An exhibition seemed the perfect way to spread the news of Vancouver’s great potential. Its earliest proponents began campaigning for a fair to be held in 1890. An exhibition would showcase the Vancouver area’s wealth of natural resources and potential for agricultural and technological innovation, as similar fairs had done in other North American cities. Hastings Park, one of the city’s largest common spaces, had been given to Vancouver by the province of BC in 1889. It seemed an ideal place for such an exhibition.

The process of organizing the fair was long and complicated, but by 1907 the wheels had been put firmly in motion with the formation of the Vancouver Exhibition Association (V.E.A.). An English newspaperman named J.C.V. Field-Johnson was one of the Association’s most enthusiastic founding members. He gathered together some of the city’s more entrepreneurial spirits for the first meetings of the V.E.A. Keen to promote Vancouver’s development, the group worked determinedly to raise money for the fair and to erect exhibition facilities in Hastings Park.

In 1910, the dream of the fair became reality. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier presided over the opening ceremonies of the first Pacific National Exhibition, then called the Industrial Exhibition, on August 16. 68,000 people attended the first fair. Fair-goers enjoyed entertainments given by Sechelt and Squamish Indian bands, a gymnastic troupe, and numerous comedians. They watched a “daredevil” plunge from seventy-five feet in the air into a flaming pool, and cheered on their favourites at horse-races on the newly made track. On “Skid Road”, visitors found rides and carnival games, and stopped to watch boxing matches or burlesque shows or to have their palms read. The first exhibition was unanimously declared a success, and the fair continued to grow and to attract increasing numbers of visitors.

Things would not always be simple, however, and the exhibition was to face a number of stumbling blocks in the years ahead. By the advent of the First World War in 1914, the Exhibition Association had a difficult decision to make. All across Canada, exhibitions were being cancelled to save money and to acknowledge the dark times the country faced.

The V.E.A. made the controversial decision not to cancel the fair. It was reluctant to jeopardize the financial gains made since 1910, and its members believed that the fair would boost national morale. They also saw the exhibition as essential to industrial development, and therefore as an indispensable part of the war effort.

Though attendance at the 1914 exhibition fell by almost 50 per cent, the citizens of Vancouver eventually warmed to the idea of a war-time fair. Official recognition by the federal government in 1915 helped to secure the support of those who had disapproved of the fair’s continuation. The V.E.A. soon proved its commitment to the war effort by allowing the Canadian armed forces to use its grounds as a base for mobilization. The Association emerged from the war years strong in the belief that it had made a difference to Canadians during a difficult time. Not everyone agreed, but the first post-war exhibition drew unprecedented numbers as Canadians came out to celebrate the allied victory.

By 1930 the Industrial Exhibition was the largest in the Pacific Northwest. Again despite some disapproval, it carried on through the Great Depression as a symbol of past prosperity and hope for the future. Fair attendance actually increased through the 1930s, remaining above 300,000 per year for most of the decade.

When World War II began in 1939, the V.E.A. again decided to continue on as it had through the First World War. In 1942, however, despite the vigorous protestations of the Association, the exhibition was postponed and its facilities taken over by the British Columbia Security Commission. The V.E.A. used this time to plan new additions to the exhibition and its grounds. This era also marked one of the most controversial parts of the fairgrounds’ history, as a large section of the grounds was used as a temporary facility for Japanese men and women slated for deportation, and as storage space for their confiscated belongings.

After hostilities ceased, the fair returned in 1947 with a new name, the Pacific National Exhibition, and with renewed hope for the exhibition’s prospects. That year, it played host to over 580,000 visitors, and attendance continued to rise in the following years. Though controversies arose occasionally regarding the uses of exhibition grounds and additions to the fair’s entertainments, the popularity of the P.N.E. did not diminish. In the late 1940s and through the 1950s, the Association undertook large-scale renovations of the exhibition facilities. A golf course was added, complete with driving range, pro shop and restaurant, and new buildings were erected to house Poultry and Pet Stock and the Dog, Cat and Mink Show. The B.C. Products Building, erected to display the province’s economic diversity, was built in 1952.

Throughout the 1960s, the V.E.A. worked towards the 1967 fair that would celebrate Canada’s centennial year. The 1966 exhibition prepared fair-goers for the ’67 celebration by showcasing the province of British Columbia and its regions. The 1967 fair took on a national theme, with exhibitions on each province and a special focus on forestry in BC. A huge birthday party on July 1st kicked off the festivities.

The exhibition continued to develop into more than a city fair through the 1970s and 1980s, becoming a celebration of the entire province. The forestry theme of the 1967 exhibition proved so popular that the showcase of BC’s forest resources became an annual fixture. The province’s agriculture industry also became a bigger focus as livestock demonstrations took place alongside displays of innovative agricultural technologies.

Other new attractions included the ever popular Eukanuba Superdogs Show, which debuted at the 1984 Exhibition. Throughout the 1990s and in the present decade, the fair began to host musicians and other performers as its entertainment component grew. Today, big name bands are frequent guests of the exhibition, and annual performances of Cirque Pop, City Rhythm, and Bring on the Night draw impressive crowds each year.

Though it was never without its critics, the P.N.E.’s place in Vancouver’s story is firmly entrenched. The changes the exhibition experienced through its history reflects the ways in which the city itself was being transformed, becoming increasingly urban and professional. The history of the exhibition is a history of Vancouver, and the fair provides a snapshot to visitors from across the globe of the city’s trials and achievements as it forged itself into the city it is today.

Contributed by Helen Button
— 2008 University of Western Ontario Practicum Student with The History Group Inc.