This weekend’s forecast is for sunny weather but Roots & Blues organizers are already feeling like this year’s festival is going to be a hot ticket for patrons.
“We’ve had the best pre-sales for the festival since 2010,” says David Gonella, festival director. “Sales have been strong with people coming out of the Lower Mainland, so it looks like we’ll have a lot of travellers in the audience this year.”
Gonella says plans for the festival are reaching their peak with just two days to go before the opening on Friday, Aug. 19.
Gonella is expecting headliners Steve Earle and Shawn Colvin to be a big draw Friday evening.
“We’ve tried to get Steve Earle before and it ended up not working out, so a lot of us are anxious to hear him play, and even better, he’s got Shawn Colvin on stage with him,” said Gonella. “Lots of people are showing an interest in Matt Andersen. He’s going to be a great way to close things out Sunday.”
This year, an expanded Thursday night Super Crawl program will see people travel around Salmon Arm to a host of venues before winding up at the Jack Daniel’s Barn Stage at the fairgrounds.
Buoyed by last year’s successful blue jeans shade display, this year will feature even more shade at the CBC Blues Stage, with the addition of Roman shades.
As far as the actual weather forecast goes, sunshine and hot temperatures are predicted, but Gonella says that’s one thing he doesn’t worry about.
“That one’s out of my control. I just try to plan for whatever comes.”