Heat, water woes cause problems at Salmon Festival

There were mostly shining reviews of the performances at the 2013 Salmon Festival in Grand Falls-Windsor on Saturday, but lots of concert-goers took to social media to vent frustrations about an apparent lack of services.

People started tweeting around 5 p.m., saying vendors had run out of bottled water as temperatures peaked at 31 C.

"People dropping like flies at Salmon Festival — might be time to lower the price of water and open some more vendors," Adam Casey said on Twitter.

Bystanders tweeted reports of people who were fainting while in the lineup to purchase bottled water.

Some of those who managed to snag a bottle before they ran out were shocked by the $4 pricetag.

Security did not allow attendees to bring in their own bottled water or food, and when both of those things ran out at the vendors, people were upset.

"Survived the heat, found some water, paid $7 for a hot dog, hated the lack of planning, loved the entertainment," Tony Batten said on Twitter.

"To be clear, I don't hate Salmon Fest, but overpricing and restricting water in July heat is practically a human rights infringement," user @UUCDave said.

VIP ticket holders said there was nowhere in their section to buy water, and the extra cost for the ticket was not worth it.

"Music, especially the Eagles, was awesome. Running out of water — not awesome. Logistics left a lot to be desired. VIP was a big money grab!" Mary Ann Hounsell tweeted.

"I intend to poll dissatisfied patrons for a class action suit against the city, officials and promotors," Debbie Dwight said from her new Twitter account, @Salmonfestfail.

Check out some of what happened at the festival on our live blog coverage.