RUMFORD – A former West Coast rocker returning to his roots has joined forces with a Baptist minister to bring big-name national entertainment to the River Valley area.
Jim Viger, who was born in Rumford in 1956, is the man behind Big Vig Productions and the five-band, all-day music festival planned for Aug. 21 at the Mexico Recreation Park.
The family event is to be a fund-raiser for Moontide Water Festival, Rumford’s annual weeklong July 4 holiday extravaganza, said Joe Roberts, the other half of the odd combination.
Roberts, a local businessman, is president of Moontide Water Festival Inc. and pastor of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Rumford.
“We have worked together very well,” Roberts said Tuesday afternoon of Viger, who sat next to him in Roberts’ office at Roberts Chiropractic Wellness Care on Exchange Street.
“He has talents and abilities I don’t have, and I have talents and abilities that he doesn’t have,” Roberts said.
“Even coming from two different worlds, we have similar things in common,” Viger said.
Headlining the music festival is Viger’s former band mates, Night Ranger, one of America’s most successful touring and recording bands, Viger said.
Viger was the band’s lead vocalist from 1975 to 1978, when it was known as the Jeff Watson Band in Sacramento, Calif., Viger said. Watson, a guitarist and vocalist, was one of his former roommates there.
“Night Ranger found out about the benefit, and Jeff Watson called me up one day, and said, Hey, man, I heard you were putting on a concert. How come you didn’t ask us to come? Me and the boys would like to come up and see you,'” Viger said.
Viger said he asked, got a signed contract with the band to be here, and is currently negotiating with the band’s management.
“I can’t say anything about the other four bands at this time, but this will be a family event. This isn’t going to be a rock concert,” he said.
“I want something that everyone can look forward to every year. No alcohol, no drugs, but rather something people can take their kids to, or their grandmother. I’m going to make sure that there’s nothing offensive,” he added.
“This is going to be big. Rumford has never seen anything like this. I’ve got the biggest stage ever seen in this town coming in from Atlanta,” Viger said.
He said the music festival is his way of giving back to the community.
“That is the whole point of this – to make sure that Moontide happens. I’m not making a dime on this. It’s all volunteer work. I’ve been working on this a long time,” Viger said.
Roberts said they hope to fill the recreation park to its capacity of between 6,000 and 7,000 people.
Ticket prices, the only obstacle so far, Viger said, are currently up in the air. He said he is trying to make the tickets, which are to go on sale by July 1, affordable for entire families.
Roberts said that Moontide is to be handling the finances, and setting up and administering a special account “at Jim’s request.”
“We at Moontide really stuck our neck out with this, but we know this is going to go, that’s why we’re working to do our best to make sure that this goes well,” he said.
“I’ve even got the tour manager for The Rolling Stones helping me out, to make sure that this doesn’t fail,” Viger said.
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