Quinn Bott doesn’t consider himself an overachiever. A recent graduate of North Las Vegas’ Community College High School, the barely legal music promoter has managed to garner two associate’s degrees from the school and has been accepted into Boston’s Northeastern University.
But if you take a look at Bott, his lanky frame, black rimmed glasses and close-cropped hair, you’d never believe he’s the promoter of one of the largest two-day metal gatherings in the region, Fire Fest. “I’m not really Quinn anymore to people in the scene,” Bott says. “I’m now the Fire Fest guy.”
A labor of love and a product of his strong DIY ethic, Bott’s second edition of the Fort Cheyenne Events Center-hosted Fire Fest hardcore and metal music festival has something that his first edition of the festival was missing—major headlining acts. Grindcore and death metal acts such as Necrophagist, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, Decapitated and Ion Dissonance highlight day one, June 14, while popular hardcore group Horse the Band headlines day two, June 18.
The decision to separate the festival’s two bills by three days came less out of a desire to divide musical styles and more out of necessity, with the later date’s acts already touring as a unit. “They offered us the package and gave us a date,” Bott says. “We were at the mercy of tour limitations, so we had to deal with the four-day separation.”
That separation brings with it the prospect of two successful days, a strange musical rivalry and a division between some members of the music scene who are pledging loyalty to a particular day of the festival. Bott concedes that tensions between hardcore and metal fans—an issue at last year’s Fire Fest—could be diffused by having split the genres, though he doesn’t think everyone will choose one or the other. “Musically, I don’t really see a personal difference between the two days,” he says. “It’s not a competition.”
What Fire Fest is, for Bott, is a farewell gift to a scene that has nurtured him and his love of music through his teenage years. “This festival is kind of like my graduation party,” Bott says. “I’m chewing my fingernails off and borrowing money from my parents to do this, but I’m doing this for the kids and to stay true to the music.”
Daily Fire Fest tickets are available for $20 in advance at myspace.com/firefest, Cash For Chaos and Community of Friends, or for $25 day of show. Doors open at noon both days.