The end of the CNE, complete its deafening jets tearing across the sky, always marks the unofficial conclusion of summer in Toronto. Post-Ex, the night air gets a little cool, kids go back to school, and the weight of existential dread drowns us all. Um, never mind about that last bit. But, about the Ex. What a year it was. With a PR crisis related to the cronut burger, a spiffy new zip line, and a host of time-honoured traditions that make the fair an exercise in ongoing nostalgia, it makes it difficult to summarize the event in one go. Thankfully, we have the help of our followers, who by tagging their Ex photos with #cneblogto, have contributed to a wonderful visual overview of this year's event. Below are 30 highlights from the 2013 CNE.

Check out the entire collection of colourful Ex photos in our streams section.

THE FOOD

The notorious cronut burger by blogto

Lumberjack poutine by patrickrea416

Dirty ice cream by blogto

Lobster roles and poutine by rebelology

Waffle ice cream sandwich by sergeyszest

The colossal onion by sarz987

THE MIDWAY

Photo by winniehoang88

Photo by melanieb_cdn

Photo by hanz_schmidt

Photo by cboliphoto

Photo by kmaltz25

Photo by blogto

Photo by shellche

THE RIDES

Photo by rebelofthefuture

Photo by acardarelli86

Photo by adds29

Photo by comeshot

Photo by gummyting

Photo by stephcanarte

Photo by terrylevine

Photo by terrylevine

Photo by tonoariki

THE REST OF IT

Photo by adds29

Photo by rebelology

Photo by eddbot

Photo by whyilovetoronto

Photo by patrickrea416

chloemrodgers

Lead photo by winniehoang88