LEE, Maine — The stage was still largely disassembled and its lights were laid in neat rows on the ground, but Kevin Zimmerman was confident on Wednesday that his outdoor venue on Mount Jefferson would be ready for its first concert on Saturday.
“Things are looking pretty good. We are about a day or two from being completely ready to go,” Zimmerman said Wednesday as about a dozen riggers and workmen assembled stage supports at Matrix Pavilion at Mount Jefferson Resort.
“Tickets are starting to sell and basically the resort’s coming together. We are a lot drier than we thought we were going to be. In seasons past I heard it was a lot muddier at this time of year, so the warm weather’s helping us. Things are starting to move along good,” he added.
Maine bands Rustic Overtones and Wyld Lyfe will play the inaugural concert 7-10 p.m. Saturday at the 2,000- capacity former Mount Jefferson Ski Area on Lee Road. About 150 tickets have been sold so far, said Zimmerman, who owns Bostonian Tickets.
Tickets are available at matrixpavilion.com or at the gate for $20, Zimmerman said.
At least one neighbor welcomed the new business venture.
“I think [the concert] will be great for the business and great for the town of Lee,” said Judy Flewelling, a clerk at Raymond’s Variety and Diner, which adjoins Zimmerman’s business. “We are just going to see how this first concert goes, and if it goes well, the one in July will go even better.”
Zimmerman has 14 acts set to perform at the inaugural Matrix Music Festival at the newly renamed Mount Jefferson Resort on the weekend of July 29-31. The scheduled performers include Adam Ezra, Icculus, Murcielago, Five of the Eyes, Lovewhip, Prospect Hill, Roots of Creation, Forget, Heavy AmericA , Paranoid Social Club, Charlie Keating Band, The Alchemystics, Tackling Triumph and Zach Deputy, according to the listing at his website.
The 32-year-old Massachusetts man bought the 51-year-old, 160-acre ski business from the Delano family and an adjacent 6-acre parcel for undisclosed prices in January. He announced soon after that night skiing, camping, snow tubing and eventually outdoor concerts were among the activities he hoped to add to the venture.
He has said that he wants his Matrix Pavilion, the summer music component of the resort, to resemble venues at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Hunter Mountain in Hunter, New York, and Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado — mountainous places known for multi-day music festivals, recreational activities such as zip line riding, camping and excellent acoustics that draw several thousand to their events.
Zimmerman picked Rustic Overtones as his first headliner because it is “one of the biggest bands in Maine, spanning over 20 years, with quite a good following. And the locals seem to like it a lot. They seem perfectly suited for the first opener. It’s one of the big Maine bands, and [we] can support the local Maine bands.”
Saturday’s show won’t likely draw a capacity crowd, Zimmerman said, but it will serve as a tuneup for the larger show a month later.
A great deal of work has been done. Work crews have leveled a few acres of trees and planted grass along the mountainside where the audience will sit. A hand pump installed to an underground spring in that area will provide water to concert-goers. Most of the area was just thick woods and will now likely make a good tubing site in the winter, Zimmerman said. The parking lot has been widened and drainage installed.
The interior of the ski lodge has been repainted and a lot of nearby ground recontoured. Zimmerman placed the stage along what was once the parking lot area closest to the front gate and Route 6 so that the sound from it will be contained by the mountain, hopefully lessening neighbor noise complaints. Ten private security guards will be on hand for the concert, he said.
“A lot of stuff has dried out, so it has been pretty nice,” Zimmerman said. “It has come together quite well.”
“We’d like to obviously get as many people as we can, just to see how things go,” he added. “This will kind of just get us kicked into gear. We’ll really scale how things are going to run and see how many people are going to show.”