Canadian musicians Amanda Marshall (L) and Sarah McLachlan (R) are performing at this weekend's Roots and Blues Festival in the Shuswap

This year’s edition of the Roots and Blues Festival in Salmon Arm is closing out this weekend with a pair of well-known Canadian artists hitting the stage.

Amanda Marshall will be performing Friday night, while Sarah McLachlan will close out the event on Sunday evening.

Artistic Director Kevin Tobin says while ticket sales for the event have been “good,” he does say they are down from last year.

“That’s something that we were expecting. I think the shock to all our systems on the fires, and just the impact of what happened last year, we definitely felt the reverberation of that leading into this year,” said Tobin.  “By no means does that mean that this festival is going to see a great reduction in the audience. We’re still expecting a strong walk-up for those folks who obviously look outside and check out the weather.”

Last year’s Roots and Blues concerts had to be cancelled after the first day due to the Bush Creek East fire in the north Shuswap.

Organizers moved up the timing of the event this year by about a month to try to avoid the worst of the wildfire season.