Owned by the City of Vancouver and founded in 1910, the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) is a vibrant non-profit organisation delivering memorable experiences to over 3 million visitors a year through cultural, music, sporting and family entertainment, events, and access to recreation spaces. The PNE’s home is Hastings Park, a multi-facility venue in Vancouver, where it manages four activity streams: the annual PNE Fair, Playland Amusement Park, Park Care and Facility Maintenance and an expansive portfolio of year-round events.
Revenues are invested back into park space, community programmes and non-revenue-generating educational and entertainment experiences. Playland is part of the PNE fairgrounds in Vancouver and is British Columbia’s most famous amusement park, featuring exhilarating rides and attractions for all ages, exciting midway games, mini-golf, a climbing wall, a haunted mansion, and a range of F&B offerings.
“The PNE is 113 years old; there’s a lot of history there. We started originally as a fair. Then Happyland, which was the original name of Playland back in 1926, came on board, and we started to see the evolution,” says Shelley Frost, president and CEO at PNE.
Frost joined the PNE team in January 2004. As part of the senior executive team, she oversees the company’s branding, advertising, promotions, retail partnerships, ticketing systems, media plans, market research, sponsorships and site-look initiatives.
A 20-year journey with PNE
Frost came to Vancouver in the late nineties to study international business at graduate school.
“I worked with several technology and software companies both locally and overseas,” she tells blooloop. “Also, I started doing some freelance work with local arts and culture groups. I loved seeing the joy that events like that brought to people. So, as I started to consider the next evolution of my career, I made a conscious decision that it was going to be something in arts, culture, tourism, adventure; something like that.”
Fortunately, at this point, the Pacific National Exhibition was looking for a VP of marketing:
“I joined in January of 2004, and have been here for 20 years. That was, honestly, never the plan, but it’s been such a fantastic journey. I started as the VP of marketing but eventually grew into the VP of sales and marketing. When our CEO transitioned out in 2018, I was fortunate to be the successful candidate, and to step into his role – just in time to take over during Covid!”
She adds:
“I fell in love with what we were doing, and with the team that we have – a passionate group of talented individuals. I’ll never take for granted that when I wake up in the morning, I look forward to going to work.”
Evolving the offer
Outlining the PNE’s evolution over the two decades she has been there, she says:
“I’ve been proud to be part of the team that has been growing the organisation. In 2010 we had a new master plan for the site approved by the city council, which outlined the evolution of the PNE. It included room to grow the fair, allowed for the growth and redevelopment of Playland, and also refocused us on growing our year-round business, doing concerts, sporting events, and cultural events all through the year in the venues that we have on-site.”
Part of the plan included the building of a new amphitheatre:
“We’re building a $104 million new amphitheatre. This will be invaluable for the fair and our year-round business, as well as for Playland festivals.”
When the 2023 PNE Fair closed on Labour Day, so, too, did the original PNE Amphitheatre, after a 59-year run. Its replacement is a spectacular new world-class outdoor venue. The new Amphitheatre, which, having spent several years in the planning stages, is anticipated to be one of the most impressive venues of its kind in North America when completed in 2026.
Designed to showcase British Columbia (BC) building products and engineering while adhering to the highest standards of environmental sustainability, the venue will be used to host a wide variety of music and culture events – ranging from the popular Summer Night Concerts at the PNE Fair to arts and culture performances by symphony’s, cultural innovators, community organisations, and others.
Developing Playland
There is also scope in the master plan to grow Playland from 15 to 22 acres, and to redevelop it as a themed amusement park, rather than a hardscape amusement park:
“We envisage something with more permeable ground space, more shaded areas, more play areas, and more defined family activity areas, as well as thrill rides. There are plans to develop three or four themed zones. I look forward to seeing Playland evolve into a regional amusement park that fully meets the demands of the regional area.”
For the moment, however:
“While we are busy investing in the amphitheatre, we have decided to defer the full growth and redevelopment of Playland,” she explains. “Until the amphitheatre is complete, we are continuing to invest in Playland’s current footprint. We have put in 13 new rides since 2004.”
The most recent addition is the Skybender, a thrill ride added in 2022. Playland’s iconic 65-year-old wooden coaster also reopened in 2022 after an 18-month, $1 million restoration.
ThunderVolt coaster at Playland
For the immediate future, Frost adds:
“We are excited to bring ThunderVolt, our new launch coaster, online in July.”
The ThunderVolt experience carries 12 passengers at a time through a supernatural environment with extraordinary animals, graphics and lighting that pulses as the ride system charges, leading up to its launch. The three-car train blasts off with 1.3 G’s of acceleration through an illuminated tunnel, up a steep incline before an 18-metre drop. The $16-million-dollar Zamperla ride will occupy the previous location of the retired Corkscrew coaster.
According to Frost, the ride’s name reflects the ride experience: speed and electricity, rooted in nature. As Canada’s fastest electric launch coaster, ThunderVolt strikes a balance between fun and thrill. It will be an impressive addition to Playland’s ride roster.
The Fair at PNE
The Fair at the PNE, a 15-day event at the end of the summer, is the largest ticketed event in the province:
“We bring three-quarters of a million people together. It’s the end-of-summer tradition for British Colombians. I love that it plays a role in the collective memories of multiple generations. It’s something that your grandparents have in common with your parents, and have in common with the current generation. And there’s just so much to do.”
It is important, Frost emphasises, to keep the experience affordable:
“We want to bring in everybody in the province: families of all socioeconomic backgrounds. There is a ton of free family entertainment. We have a signature concert series called the Summer Night Concerts. This is a fabulous outdoor amphitheatre series with great acts.”
The 2023 Summer Night season featured a range including Aqua, Boney M featuring Maizie Williams, Doug and the Slugs with the VSO, and Pink Martini featuring China Forbes, The Stars of Drag, TLC, Boyz II Men, Jason Derulo, Yung Gravy and bbno$, Blue Rodeo, Nelly, Barenaked Ladies, and many more:
“We have amazing acts,” Frost comments. “Playland plays a role, as the ride component of the experience. Most people say they come because it is just the thing to do; it’s traditional. They come for the rides, and they come for the food. It always has unique food offerings, and for those 17 days, it’s the thing to do in Vancouver.”
Core values at Playland and PNE
While honouring the heritage aspect is important, Frost explains:
“We are also very focused on evolution for the future. We can’t just be reliant on history and tradition, hence the redevelopment according to the master plan that was approved in 2010, building out the amphitheatre, growing Playland, and investing in making this a physical space and group of attractions that will be at the heart of entertainment for decades to come.”
In terms of mission:
“Our vision is to inspire joy and deliver memorable experiences. We do that through our three core values. We call them the three ‘E’s of the PNE. They are excellence, enthusiasm, and evolution. We defined those core values in 2018 and 2019. When Covid hit, our team said afterwards that what helped keep them focused and driving forward in such an incredibly difficult time was our goal to deliver memorable experiences, even in a new form and our core values.”
Weathering the storm
The PNE team came up with some unusual and interesting strategies to negotiate the challenges of the pandemic.
Frost explains:
“It started with the fact that we wanted to stay connected to everybody that was feeling very disconnected. Covid started as we were heading into the spring. That is a time when we would normally bring school groups out to Playland to celebrate their year-end.
“We started doing what we call the ‘Party in a Box’. We delivered all of the things that you would get at Playland Amusement Park to groups of people, maybe, in a neighborhood cul-de-sac, or who would be having their graduation at home. You would get your cotton candy, your mini donuts, your candy apple and all of those great things delivered right to your door.”
The team then decided to expand the concept, thanking all the people who had supported the organisation over the years:
“We decided to do a drive-through, bringing some of our wonderful food vendors who were also feeling the pinch of Covid. We brought out all the mini donut vendors around the lower mainland and did a mini donut drive-through. Everyone could go through and try all the different kinds of mini donuts. It turned into something spectacular. Our line-ups were hours long. We had people driving in from hours away to feel connected and have something fun to do.”
The team is key
This was the inception of several different drive-throughs:
“We did a Father’s Day rib drive-through and a Canada Day celebration that we called a Reverse Parade. That was where people drove through and the parade happened around them. We had entertainers and a lot of pageantry, to help celebrate Canada Day.”
Numerous drive-throughs took place, right up until Christmas:
“Then we did our first Christmas Light event drive-through, both to be able to keep people safe and also to give them an opportunity to do something different. All those things helped keep the PNE front-of-mind for all of our guests. They allowed us to stay connected with them, as well as allowing us to keep some people working, and to keep our vendors employed. Importantly, it let us spread a little joy, in many ways, which was fantastic.”
The team is a key part of the PNE:
“I was doing a Years of Service event just before Christmas,” she says. “There were 47 people in that room being honoured for their years of service. Two individuals had been with us for 45 and 55 years respectively. That’s a hundred years of service between two people. So many people stay with us for so long just because our mission, and the organisation, are so close to their hearts.
“I can’t overstate the importance of the team at the PNE, both in terms of the management team and our seasonal staff.”
Playland brings diverse visitorship
Another stand-out characteristic of the PNE is the breadth of demographics. Looking at it through the lens of the business streams, Frost says:
“The fair brings out everybody from two to 102, from every socioeconomic background, race, ethnicity, and religious belief. It is a bringing together of the diversity of BC in a beautiful melting pot.
“Playland is more of a thrill park. It caters to a teen and young adult demographic, though we do have a strong family demographic there as well. We have a group of family rides, and we draw from the entire region around Vancouver.”
“For the fair, 25% of our demographic comes directly from Vancouver. The rest come from all the surrounding areas, the rest of BC, and from the Pacific Northwest or other provinces. We’re responsible between the Fair and Playland for 175,000 tourism visits every year.”
The PNE is, Frost reiterates a nonprofit.
“Since 2004, our organisation has grown. I love the fact that it is an organisation that is generating revenue and is financially successful in investing back into our site, our attractions, our team, and the local community.
“Our team loves that when they work hard, part of the reward is in seeing that hard work coming back to them as investments in team programs, education, tools, and equipment.”
Playland continues to grow
Concerning net revenue, Frost reports the PNE has grown from $35 million in 2004 to just over $80 million now:
“We’re seeing a real return on the investments that we’re making in our events and in Playland.”
The year-round event portfolio is an important part of the business, complementing the Fair, which runs for two weeks of the year, and Playland, which is seasonal, running from April through October:
“We have seven different venues on site. We bring in concerts, sporting events, trade and consumer shows, farmers’ markets, and all different kinds of music family shows – Disney on Ice, for example. The events run 365 days a year. They allow us to keep a full-time year-round team that is invested in the organisation and has continuity from year to year. We are not reliant solely on seasonal staff.”
All in all, she concludes:
“We are pretty proud of the PNE, and we’re all, as a team, very proud of what the future looks like.”
For the immediate future, the focus is on the ThunderVolt launch coaster, poised to blaze onto the scene this July:
“It will be the fastest launch coaster in Canada,” Frost comments. “It’s the biggest investment in a ride that we’ve made in Playland’s history: just over $16 million. It signals a great evolution into the future.”
