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A Philadelphia firefighter — who was injured after falling from the roof of a home earlier this year — will perform at this year’s upcoming Adjacent Music Festival at the Jersey Shore.
Firefighter Randy Ballinger from the Philadelphia Fire Department’s Ladder 13 — who plays bass with a local punk band, Jersey Calling — said he can’t wait for the opportunity.
“This is a dream come true,” said Ballinger in a statement shared by officials with the festival.
In a statement, Geoff Gordon, president of Live Nation Northeast, said that upon learning about Ballinger’s injury, he wanted to make sure that the firefighter and his band were part of the festival.
“[We] need to find a slot at the Adjacent Music Festival for Randy and his band,” Gordon recalled saying in a statement.
But, not only will Ballinger’s band perform during the two-day festival, Jersey Calling will open the weekend’s festivities with a noon performance on Saturday, May 27.
“This unreal opportunity to open the Adjacent Music Festival is giving me plenty of motivation to accelerate my recovery,” Ballinger said in a statement. “This is the inspiration I need to keep going. I am going to deliver my best performance. I’m grateful to Geoff and Live Nation for this opportunity. It will be the ultimate show for me and the band.”
The 38-year-old Ballinger suffered a punctured lung, broken pelvis, and fractures in his legs after he fell 25-feet off a two-story row home on South Paxton Street on Feb. 25.
He then, reportedly, spent the next 11 days at the trauma center before he was released.
The father of two from Roxborough also underwent heart surgery since his fall, officials said in a statement.
Festival officials said that Ballinger has been recovering in a wheelchair and has been practicing with his band — which initially formed in 2002 and is made up of friends grew up together in South Jersey — as much as he can.
“Randy is a real hero who is inspiring with his courage,” said Gordon in a statement. “We are grateful for the work that he and first responders do every day. Music has a unique power to bring us together and it also has an ability to heal. We are psyched to give Randy and his band some hope and an opportunity to perform in front of a large audience on the beach in Atlantic City, and in front of some of their favorite bands they adore. I’m really excited for Randy and to see Jersey Calling open the show for us, on what I’m sure will be an emotional day for all of us.”
The two-day Adjacent Music Festival will be headlined by blink-182, Paramore and a number of popular emo, punk and pop-punk bands from Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York and across the U.S. It will be held on the beach in Atlantic City, N.J. on May 27 and 28.
For more information, or a full list of performers coming to the Adjacent Music Festival, click here.
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