Red River Ex 2027: Mid-June Dates and a Day at the Fair

The Red River Ex runs for ten days every June at Exhibition Park, 3977 Portage Ave, out where Portage runs west toward the Perimeter. The 2026 edition ran June 12 to 21. The 2027 dates were not posted when this was written, so plan on the same mid-June stretch and check before you book anything around it. What follows is one day at the fair, laid out the way we would actually spend it, with what each choice costs you.

Noon, and why we go in on a Sunday

In 2026 the organiser opened the gates free for three hours across the run: the first Friday from 5 to 6 p.m., and both Sundays from noon to 1 p.m. The Friday hour is the one everyone knows about. The Sunday hours are quieter, and a Sunday noon start buys you the midway before the lines are worth calling lines.

The cost of that choice is the afternoon heat, which you will meet head on, and the fact that it pins your visit to one day of ten. If your week only allows a Wednesday, go Wednesday and pay at the gate. Admission is a one-day pass for anyone seven and up; children six and under get in free. The gate takes cash, debit and credit.

Park in the west lot, which you reach by turning north off Portage Avenue onto Festival Drive, or the south lot at Race Track Road and Stewart Millet Drive. Both were $5 for the day in 2026. The small lot immediately outside the east gates is privately owned and sets its own price.

1 p.m., the buildings, while the midway fills up

Most people walk in and turn toward the rides. Turn the other way for an hour. The agricultural displays, the artisan market and the juried competitions in art, photography and quilting are the half of the Ex that has nothing to do with North American Midway Entertainment, and they are indoors, which in the middle of a June afternoon is the point. The Model Boat Club sets up in the Boathouse.

There is live music all day. Across its ten days the Ex programs more than 200 hours of it, mostly on small stages you come across rather than queue for. Sit through one set. The trade-off here is real: an hour inside is an hour you are not on the midway, and if your group is three teenagers, they will tell you so.

3 p.m., the wristband question

Rides are not included in gate admission. You buy ride credits or a wristband separately, on top of what you paid to walk in, and that catches people out every year. The midway carries more than 50 rides, and individual rides carry their own height limits, so a four-year-old and a nine-year-old will not ride the same list.

In 2026 the organiser sold a children's all-you-can-ride wristband for $25 at the grounds. A wristband only earns its money if you are staying into the evening. If you arrived at noon and you are leaving at five, buy credits and ride four things. If you are staying until the lights come on, buy the band at three and stop counting.

6 p.m., supper on the grounds

Eat there. Not because the food is cheap, it is fair food and priced like it, but because leaving to eat means the drive back out Portage and a second run at parking. The vendors take cash and cards, same as the gate.

This is also the hour the grounds change over. Families with small children start heading for the lots, the lines at the bigger rides shorten for a while, and the crowd that came straight from work starts arriving. If your day has a quiet window, it is roughly between six and seven.

9:30 p.m., the part that is worth staying for

Winnipeg in late June does not get dark until about half past nine, and the sky holds light past ten. That is late, and it means the midway at night, which is the version of the Ex that ends up in everyone's photographs, only exists for the last hour or two of the day. Opening day in 2026 ran 5 p.m. to midnight; the final Sunday closed at 10 p.m. The day you pick decides how much of that you get.

Bring a layer. The grounds are flat and open with nothing to break the wind, and the temperature drops faster after sunset than a warm afternoon suggests. If you have a young child who has been there since noon, you will not make it to the lights, and that is fine; the Ex is better as two short visits than one long one, if your dates allow it.

Where to stay for the Red River Ex

Our three-bedroom home is in Crescentwood, south of the Assiniboine, and Exhibition Park is a straight run west along Portage Avenue from the north side of the river. Driving yourself is the simple option, and the $5 lot makes it a cheap one.

Without a car, Winnipeg Transit runs a special event service during the Ex. In 2026 it left from Market and Main, beside the Centennial Concert Hall, ran south on Main and west on Portage to the grounds with limited stops, and came about every 15 minutes at the busiest times and every half hour on weekday afternoons. The Concert Hall is ten minutes from our door by car, 4.3 km, so the usual plan is to drive that far, leave the car downtown and let the bus handle Portage Avenue and the parking.

Mid-June is when the summer calendar here gets crowded. The Ex and the jazz festival overlap in the same stretch of June, and rooms across the central neighbourhoods go early. Our Airbnb listing shows what is still open.