Salmon Festival getting final touches ahead of show

With less than 24 hours to go until the province's largest outdoor concert, organizers with the 2014 Salmon Festival are putting the final touches on the stage and venues.

Organizers said traffic in Grand Falls-Windsor area had picked up by Friday, as people start to arrive ahead of Saturday's concert.

Meryl Stewart, the Salmon Festival concert promoter, said getting in-demand acts like Maroon 5 and Pitbull to come to central Newfoundland wasn't easy, but lineups for past shows helped.

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"Being established from the years passed helps us now by having bands that they say, 'Well, who played there?' and we can show them a profile and so they look at that and say, 'Well, if these people played here, they must be doing a good job, otherwise they wouldn't be here,'" said Stewart.

Stewart said with such high-profile acts coming to the island, it's tricky to work around their schedule.

"Maroon 5, they're playing a show, they have three jets on standby [and] as soon as their show is done they'll be hustled right to the plane and fly and land in Gander tomorrow [Saturday] morning," said Stewart.

"Pitbull's in New York, he's the same way. He's playing, he'll go to LaGuardia [Airport] and get on his plane, they got two planes coming with him, they got two jets coming with him, he's got an entourage of dancers coming this time."

Sound and stage equipment has been shipping into the town for weeks ahead of Saturday's festival.

Supporting acts Simple Plan, American Authors and Virginia to Vegas are also set to take the stage.

Last minute tickets are available online, or at the ticket window when the show open's on Saturday.