This Friday marks the beginning of an all-new festival of fire and music, a monumental undertaking by the Fernley ACES to bring something big and new to Fernley.
The idea was originally sparked out of disdain for our local prickly tumbleweeds. From there, the fires of inspiration were stoked to create InFERNo. The soundtrack consists of metal, bold sounds to set the tone for the festival. The ACES set the stage with headliner Drowning Pool, an internationally known and touring band with a platinum hit song, Bodies, and band lineup consisting of 8 other metal and hard rock bands. Add in some wild entertainment like a car smash/rage room, armored fighters, metal and fire sculptures, six tumbleweed bonfires, fire dancers and more, it’s set to be something unlike anything you’ve seen before. Participants are also encouraged to dress the part–with a desert wasteland/apocalypse feel.
To grow a small spark into a giant bonfire, the process of planning and creating a new festival is no easy feat. The all-volunteer crew of the nonprofit Fernley ACES took on the task with enthusiasm and optimism. With several years of experience in planning events like the M3 festival, this was a leap into something somewhat familiar, but also much bigger in scale than anything before. The learning curve was sharp and unforgiving, muddling the crew in a sea of new permits and requirements that not only came with lots of paperwork, but also a lot of unexpected expenses.
The cost of putting on an event like this is impressively large. The festival has ballooned into 6 digits, a huge lift for a small nonprofit. Obvious expenses like a big-name band and professional stage aside, there are tons of hidden or unexpected expenses. Things like bathroom rentals, permits, fire/EMS crews, security, more permits, supplies, and much more.
The costs are not only monetary, but it takes more volunteer hours than you’d probably expect: meetings with various permitting agencies (everything from the health department, NDOT, fire department, Sherriff, to the county itself and more), planning meetings amongst the crew, site meetings to plan the layout and show various involved parties the space, creating advertising campaigns and materials to spread the word, putting out physical flyers all throughout the area, building needed items, creating signage, creating and ordering merch, actually setting up, cleaning up, and running the festival in between, coordinating with vendors, and so much more. This amounts to hundreds and even thousands of volunteer hours.
Community support is so important in launching an event like this through participation, purchase of tickets and merchandise, volunteering, sponsorships (see our website for new options!), donations, and simply by spreading the word. This kind of event has huge potential to make a big impact on our city through tourism and recognition in the way that Night in the Country has impacted Yerington, and this proof of concept first year is a great step in that direction. This first year has challenges in getting the word out and getting people to come, or even to believe that we really do have Drowning Pool performing in Fernley.
Another hope is that through an event like this, the ACES can support more free community events without leaning so heavily on the city and local businesses to support them. As we grow this event, ticket sales have the potential to cover existing events and ease the burden, allowing businesses to support more of the nonprofits and amazing causes in our area, but the ACES can’t do it without some help along the way. If the ACES can create something like this with a small crew, imagine what we can do together!
The ACES would like to thank the City of Fernley and the FCTA for their support, All In Graphix for their partnership on the merch, Lyon County Fire for their support and for the fun with the test burn last weekend, Vet Mech Arms for donating a flamethrower (which you can win!), Waste Management, Desert Pigs, Fern45, the Reno-Fernley Raceway, and our community partners for their participation in our Cash Caps promo: The Silver Spur Saloon, All Points Grill, Fire Forno, The Canal Wine Lounge, and McHoppers Brew Co.
The community is invited to drop off their dry tumbleweeds (no branches, trash, yard waste, weeds, or green plants) at the Reno-Fernley Raceway on Friday March 27th from 10am-3pm if you’d like to contribute to the six tumbleweed bonfires that will burn Saturday night.
Camping passes are available so you can get the full InFERNo experience including fire walking on Friday the 27th and the afterparty on Saturday the 28th. Metal Morning Yoga will be offered Saturday and Sunday mornings to stretch those muscles before and after all the fun, too.
Tickets and information can be found at fernleyaces.net/InFERNo. Tickets will also be available at the door.
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