U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is throwing a concert in a park with a dramatic view of Manhattan's skyscrapers. At the opposite end of New York state, Republican front-runner Donald Trump will be holding a rally in Buffalo, a Rust Belt city recovering from economic decline.

By the end of Monday — the last official day of campaigning before voting in the state's Democratic and Republican primary elections begins — thousands of New Yorkers will have heard the candidates' closing pitches.

New York's primary is set to be the most decisive such election in the state in decades in terms of picking the nominees for November's general election. The date for the contests was shifted back this year so they are no longer crowded out by the raft of other states that voted on so-called Super Tuesday last month.