Salmon Fest ticket sales already more than last year: organizer

An organizer with this year's Salmon Festival in Grand Falls-Windsor says ticket sales so far have already surpassed last year's concert.

Town Coun. Darren Finn said only 5,500 people bought tickets for last year's festival. Grand Falls-Windsor was out roughly $500,000 as a result.

The target for ticket sales this year is 8,000 and Finn said they are on track to meet that goal.

• John Fogerty to headline Salmon Festival on July 11
• Rod Stewart playing July 11 festival in St. John's

"All of our sales to date are more than we would have had last year at all and we still have the next number of weeks, up until July 11, for finalizing our sales," he said.

"We're very optimistic that we're going to have a good crowd, and they're all going to enjoy a good concert."

But there's going to be more competition this year than before, with a major concert in St. John's for the same day, as well as another one in Prince Edward Island.

"We know that there's competition, we have the concert in St. John's on the same day and there's another concert in Charlottetown, P.E.I., on the same day, so we've got some stiff competition that we haven't had in other years," said Finn.

"That will impact us and that will impact those other concerts, as well, so all of those factors are affecting ticket sales, but our marketing is in high gear and we're getting a ton of [positive] feedback."

John Fogerty is headlining this year's Salmon Fest.

Meanwhile, Rod Stewart is headlining the Confederation Hill Music Fest in St. John's on the same day, the first year for this all-day outdoor concert.

The Cavendish Beach Music Festival in Charlottetown, P.E.I. is also on July 11, and runs that entire weekend with headliners like Keith Urban and Eric Church.