The CNE 2026: Dates, Hours, Getting There, Parking and What to See

The Ex runs August 21 to September 7, 2026. Eighteen days. The grounds are open 10am to midnight every day except Labour Day, when everything winds down early. Gate admission bought in advance is $25.11 and a Ride All Day Pass is $51.66, both before HST. Take the GO train or the streetcar if you can, because parking at Exhibition Place fills up fast and costs more during events. The Air Show flies Labour Day weekend, and this year it is the last Toronto appearance for the Snowbirds before they pause operations.

New to the west end and still learning the city's rhythms? Our neighbourhood guides cover what living in each pocket of Etobicoke and the west end is actually like.

Photo: Unsplash

Dates and hours

Labour Day is the one to watch. The gates shut at 5pm, there is no re-entry after 5pm, and no re-entry stamps are given after 3pm. If you show up at 6pm on September 7 expecting to get in, you will not.

Hours from the CNE's published schedule, checked August 17, 2026.

Tickets

Advance pricing is available online until 11:59pm on August 20. After that you are paying event prices, which the CNE had not published as of August 17.

Advance prices include a $2.99 per ticket processing fee. HST is added at checkout. Prices from theex.com, August 17, 2026.

Two things that save money and get missed. If you have a ticket to a BMO Field or RBC Amphitheatre event, you get onto the CNE grounds free that day. And if you buy an Air Show ticket, same-day CNE grounds admission comes with it.

Getting there

1234561 Princes' Gates (east entrance, Strachan)2 Exhibition GO + TTC Exhibition Loop3 Dufferin Gate (west entrance)4 Enercare Centre (indoor parking)5 Better Living Centre6 Liberty Village (walk in from the north)© OpenStreetMap contributors © CARTO

Gates, transit and parking around Exhibition Place. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, tiles © CARTO.

Exhibition Place sits north of Lake Shore Boulevard West between Strachan and Dufferin, right off the Gardiner. Transit is genuinely the better call here, and both the CNE and Exhibition Place say so themselves.

• GO Transit. Exhibition GO is on the grounds. Nothing beats it. Note that Metrolinx opened the North Side Station Entrance in October 2024 and permanently closed the old sidewalk from Atlantic Avenue, so pick-ups and drop-offs now happen on Atlantic.
• 509 Harbourfront streetcar from Union to Exhibition Loop.
• 511 Bathurst from Bathurst Station to Exhibition Loop. Check ttc.ca before you go, since this has been running as a replacement bus.
• 504B King streetcar from Broadview Station to Dufferin Gate Loop.
• 29 Dufferin bus south from Dufferin Station to Dufferin Gate Loop.
• Bike. There are 732 bike racks on the grounds. Bike parking sits at the west end near Dufferin and at the Princes' Gates at the east end. The Martin Goodman Trail runs right past, and Strachan, Fort York and Wellington all have lanes.

More west end reading while you plan your day:

• LUZIA in Toronto: Cirque du Soleil on the Etobicoke Waterfront
• Mimico GO vs Long Branch GO: A Commuter's Guide
• The Liberty Village Guide: What Living There Is Actually Like

Parking near the Ex

Exhibition Place runs all the lots itself. There are 5,400 spaces including 1,300 underground, spread across the Enercare Centre Garage and surface lots 851 through 856 and 859. Green P Mobile Pay is the preferred payment method and the only one accepted on BMO Field game days.

Rates posted by Exhibition Place and checked August 17, 2026. Exhibition Place describes its rates as dynamic and subject to change without notice. The CNE had not published its own 2026 event parking rates as of that date, so budget toward the higher end and confirm before you go.

Five vehicle entrances: Dufferin at Saskatchewan, Strachan at Manitoba, and three off Lake Shore at Newfoundland, Ontario Drive and British Columbia. Arrive early. The lots fill, and the streets around the grounds get slow in the late afternoon.

The Air Show

The Canadian International Air Show flies September 5, 6 and 7, its 77th year, over the waterfront. This one carries some weight: the Canadian Forces Snowbirds announced in May that they will pause operations after the 2026 season, so this is the last Toronto show for the nine red-and-white CT-114 Tutors for a while.

Also flying: the USAF F-16 Demo Team, the Jack Aces in three P-51 Mustangs making their first appearance here, Vintage Wings of Canada pairing a Spitfire with a Hawker Hurricane, the Pink L-39 jet, Trevor Rafferty in a Christen Eagle and Mike Tryggvason debuting an Edge 540 V3. There is a free STEM Zone with life-size aircraft and VR, and tickets come in four tiers including a new backstage pass at Billy Bishop.

You can watch a fair bit of it free from the waterfront if you are not fussy about the angle. Humber Bay Shores and the Martin Goodman Trail give you sightlines without a ticket.

Rides, shows and the rest

• Midway. Two of them, the Adult Midway and the Kiddie Midway, plus Kids' World for the smaller crowd. The Ride All Day Pass is the value play if you are going to be on rides for more than about two hours.
• Bell SOUNDSTAGE at the Bandshell. Every performance is free with grounds admission. The 2026 bill includes Lupe Fiasco, Lights, Shaggy, Silverstein, and Tom Cochrane & The Trews. Front Row VIP add-ons start around $40 and have already sold out for those acts, so general admission is the way in now.
• The Food Building. Still the reason a lot of people come. Go hungry, go early, share everything.
• The Farm, SuperDogs, the Gaming Garage and the extreme sports half-pipe are all regular fixtures. Check the schedule close to your visit, since the lineup shifts year to year.

Practical bits worth knowing: lockers cost a toonie and sit at the Princes' Gates, Kids' World and the south end of the Adult Midway. Wi-Fi is free across the grounds. Wagons rent from the info booths, 10am to 10pm. Wheelchairs and scooters are available through Scouts Canada at 416-649-2296. Ask for a hand stamp if you leave and want back in. Pets stay home, service animals are welcome.

If you live nearby

Eighteen days of this changes the rhythm of the surrounding blocks. Liberty Village, Fort York and the south end of Parkdale get busier, the streetcars run full, and the Air Show weekend is loud in a way that surprises people their first summer here. Most locals learn to walk in through the north side and skip the parking problem entirely.

None of that shows up in property values in any measurable way, and we would not tell you it does. It is simply part of what late August sounds like in this part of the city. Some people love it. Some people book a weekend away. Worth knowing which one you are before you buy within earshot.

Thinking about a move to the west end and wondering what each pocket is actually like day to day? Send us a note and we will give you the real read.

Dave Dubbin
Real Estate Expert
Dave Dubbin & Associates
Real Estate Broker for Etobicoke and Toronto