About the Salmon Festival

The Exploits Valley Salmon Festival in Grand Falls-Windsor began in 1985 as a five-day regional celebration in honor of the migrating Atlantic Salmon. A weekend of "Fish and Fun While the Salmon Run" was developed to enhance environ-mental awareness and focus attention on one of nature's most spectacular phenomena.

Today, the Exploits Valley Salmon Festival is a major international festival, attracting visitors from all over the world. From 1991 to 1998, the festival was selected by American Bus Association as one of North America's Top 100 Events. In recognizing the Salmon Festival, the A.B.A. acknowledges the contributions of volunteers, businesses and municipal leaders while praising the local flavor, community spirit and family focus of the event.

The festival features regular events such as the Salmon Dinner and the increasingly popular "Newfie Night" ­ highlighting the traditional foods and music of our great province. For many people, the highlight of the festival is the "Splash Concert" ­ a day long concert held at the Forestry Capital Pavilion on Centennial Field.

Previous concerts have featured world class entertainment such as Waylon Jennings, the Rankin Family, Alannah Myles, the Irish Descendants and Great Big Sea. Building on the reputation of the Salmon Festival, Grand Falls-Windsor has also held several other concerts such as Bon Jovi in 1995 and the Canada Day Beach Boys Concert in 1990.