MADRAS — After years of planning for the total solar eclipse, and before the crush of visitors, who will arrive by the thousands this week, fairgrounds and campgrounds in Madras were being transformed Wednesday into festival settings.

Along U.S. Highway 97 between Bend and Madras, traffic had intensified, with congestion at busy intersections, but had not yet reached a crescendo. Hand-painted signs announcing campsites with space available got more and more common closer to Madras. And at Oregon SolarFest at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, the heart of the city’s largest eclipse-related event, contractors have been busy setting up large white tents in grass fields, ushering in food trucks and other vendors and raising a canvas-and-aluminum roof that will cover the main music stage.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal,” said Robert Peterson, president of Oregon Stage Lighting & Sound, the company responsible for assembling the main stage at Oregon SolarFest. “So we need to make this not just an every-other-weekend show. We need to make it bigger than that.”

Sandy Forman, event coordinator for Jefferson County Tourism Group, said Wednesday was the first day vendors could begin setting up at the fairgrounds.

Several food trucks lined the central corridor through the fairgrounds, and tents aimed at “glampers” — glamor campers — were set up in front of the main gates. However, Forman said more work needed to be done before campers begin arriving Thursday afternoon, including setting up portable toilets and hand-washing stations.

“We’re just rolling along,” she said.

Peterson and his six employees arrived at around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, armed with enough aluminum to assemble the frame of a 40-foot by 40-foot canvas roof for the stage, which will host more than 20 bands and other performers over three days. They were aided by members of the Madras High School football team, which Oregon SolarFest recruited to help with the setup at the fairgrounds and other venues. Peterson added that the football players arrived an hour late.

Peterson, who worked as the resident lighting director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 37 years, signed a contract more than a year prior. He wants to distinguish the eclipse festival from other medium-sized shows.

“I want people in the audience to be wowed,” he said.

To that end, Oregon Stage Lighting & Sound is planning to combine moving LED lights and foam decorations to design solar-themed scenery for the stage.

Five miles north, at the campground across from the Madras Airport that will host Solartown, a camping area designed to provide the best available view of the eclipse, much of the formal setup had already been completed. Outdoors Geek, a Denver-based company that specializes in setting up campsites for music festivals, corporate retreats and other large events, arrived in Central Oregon on Friday, and began setting up tents shortly thereafter.

Owner Will Marquardt said the company began erecting tents at the site on Monday.

By the end of Tuesday, Outdoors Geek had set up nearly 350 tents, of various sizes and shapes.

The tents could be reserved, were resistant to fire, water and mildew and were aimed at high-end campers.

In addition to the tents, Outdoors Geek is providing around 700 cots and 700 chairs for campers, and will remain onsite in case that equipment breaks.

“These people aren’t campers necessarily; they’re just people who want to see the eclipse,” Marquardt said of the attendees.

While Outdoors Geek handles large-scale events across the country, from NASCAR races at Watkins Glen, New York, to the Firefly Music Festival in Delaware, Marquardt acknowledged the company had never provided accommodations for a solar eclipse before.

“I’m not sure I’ll live long enough to do another one,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com