Opening day snags mar Pemberton Festival

Canada's largest outdoor summer concert in recent memory got under way on Friday, but the inaugural Pemberton Festival was not without its birthing pains.

More than 40,000 fans made the bumper-to-bumper trek up British Columbia's Sea-to-Sky Highway for the music extravaganza that runs through Sunday. By Friday afternoon, the highway approaching the village of Pemberton was backed up, and fans were greeted with lineups, confusion and dust kicked up by crowds in the farmer's field that has been converted into a festival site.

"Getting here from Whistler was a nightmare," Adelle Papp told CBC News. "Then we paid $90 for parking and we just stumbled on it. There was no one directing traffic, nothing."

And when Papp and her husband, Chris, finally parked their car, the promised shuttle buses never arrived. "We had to walk a half-hour from the parking lot," she said.

But she hoped the music would more than make up for the inconveniences. "I won't hold it against them," she said. "They have two days to make up to me."

The festival, featuring more than 50 bands, including Kingston, Ont.-based The Tragically Hip have put the village of Pemberton on the map. Pemberton is about 30 kilometres north of Whistler.

Music will be performed from noon to 1 a.m. each day on four different stages against the backdrop of snow-capped Mount Currie.

The mainstage acts kicked off around 3 p.m. Friday with Toronto-based Metric on the Mount Currie stage.

American industrial rockers, Nine Inch Nails, the headliner of the festival's first day, took the stage shortly after sundown to wild applause.

The smaller Lillooet stage, where indie acts reign this weekend, wrapped up Friday with Ottawa's Kathleen Edwards.

Saturday's highlights include The Tragically Hip, winner of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award this year, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as the closing band of the day.

The festival winds up Sunday evening with U.K. rockers Coldplay.