Fog flusters Juno plans in St. John's

The fog in Newfoundland has thrown a wrench into some Juno events and rehearsals for Sunday's televised awards ceremony in St. John's.

Many musicians and singers, expected in the provincial capital on Friday night, ended up being left behind for a day in cities like Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.

Some have been lucky. Billy Talent, slated to perform on Sunday night's Juno ceremonies from the Mile One Centre, finally arrived in St. John's on Friday night after spending the day in Halifax.

Nikki Yanofsky, the 16-year-old jazz sensation who graced the Olympic opening ceremonies, was stuck in Montreal until early Saturday.

The southern Ontario rock band Alexisonfire, stuck in Halifax, missed a Saturday midday autograph session.

Several performances at local clubs on Friday had to be cancelled as rehearsals for Sunday night's show were less a few faces, and a few bands that were slated to be part of the Fan Fare event at the Village Shopping Centre had to be trimmed from the lineup.

St. John's has been hosting scores of pre-awards events, dubbed "Ruckus on the Edge"  — including a charity hockey game pitting rockers versus star athletes — in the days leading up to Sunday's finale. Friday's hockey game ended in a 9-8 win for ex-NHL players, by the way.

The massive cloud of ash spewing from Iceland and hovering above Europe is also affecting the Junos as some artists — including Bryan Adams — are struggling to reach Canada from that continent, where three-quarters of flights were cancelled on Saturday.

Juno Awards producer John Brunton said "contingency plans" were in place, but did not divulge details.

The 39th annual Juno Awards on Sunday night will include performances from rappers K'naan and Drake, Metric, Michael Bublé and teenage pop star Justin Bieber.