A parade with floats and around 500 extras is expected to start around noon on either the square or Floyd Street, but won’t last very long, said a Vampire Diaries crew member. Fireworks are expected to be set off between 9 p.m. and midnight.
The show is still looking for extras who will be able to work Sunday through Tuesday, for 12-hour shifts. Anyone who is interested, and is between the age of 18 to 65, should send a recent photo along with their age, clothing sizes, height, phone number and weight to vampirediariescasting@gmail.com. Extras are paid $7.25 per hour and receive overtime pay.
The crew member said the best vantage point and safest spot to watch the parade will be around Scoops, starting from the store and working away from the square on both College and Church streets. The member asked that anyone watching please be considerate of the filming crews.
“It would be nice if people understand we’ve got a job to do. We’ve got a lot of work to get done in a short period of time,” the member said. “At the same time we understand people want to watch and we want them to enjoy themselves.”
There was a talk about simulating an explosion in the old Teachers Tool Box store, but that will not be happening, said the member.
In an interview with TV Guide, Producer Julie Plec talked about the season finale.
“What we've been building to from the beginning — it's something we took directly from the books — is this event called the Founders' Day Celebration, which is the anniversary of the founding of the town. We're looking into big period costumes and Civil War reenactments and maybe some parade action with some big floats,” Plec said. “It's going to be the big event that connects us back to 1864 and what went down back then. It messes things up so when we come back in Season 2, everyone has a reason to tune in again. There are nine "oh my God" moments.”
On Feb. 16, The CW Network announced that Vampire Diaries would be renewed for a second season. The show is the CW’s most popular, garnering an average of 4.6 million viewers every Thursday. The show is particularly popular among women in the 18-34 age range.