Grade 10 student by day, rock/punk impresario by night

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Ryan Fitzpatrick. Photo by Glen Gower[/caption] _ (This article originally appeared on our sister site, StittsvilleCentral.ca ) _ Ryan Fitzpatrick is a busy guy. He’s 15 years old, in Grade 10 at Sacred Heart High School, has a paper route, plays guitar and sings. And in his spare time, he also runs a music promotion company.

Fitzpatrick has been playing guitar for the past five years. He started The Indie Scene to promote local rock and punk bands in Ottawa.

He organizes shows downtown at venus like Pressed, Mavericks and Cafe Dekcuf, and he’s trying to get more of a scene going out in Stittsville.

This Saturday, he’s producing the Stittsville Punk Fest at the Stittsville Legion, featuring 10 rock bands from around Stittsville and Richmond, and as far away as Toronto.

“There used to be quite a few shows around here, but the guy who ran them moved to Kingston,” he says. “Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of venues to perform at so that is why I am trying to book shows in town every two to three months at places like the Legion and the Lions Hall.”

When I talked to Fitzpatrick on Sunday, about 60 advance tickets had already been sold for Saturday’s show, which has a capacity of around 100 people. The audience at his events tends to be mostly students from 14-18 years old, but they draw adults from the wider area as well.

Fitzpatrick plays guitar and does vocals for his band City Limits , one of the local acts at this weekend’s show. Some of the other local groups include Atticus (“a Stittsville power rock band, one of the members is Hugh Harrington who’s in Grade 12 at Sacred Heart”), Rydell (“pop-punk, with members from Stittsville and Richmond”), Safekeeping (“Richmond and Stittsville emo”), and The Stringers (“from all over Ottawa but the frontman is from here”).

Stittsville Punk Fest is on Saturday, October 11 at the Legion on Stittsville Main Street. Doors open at 5:30pm and the show starts at 6:00pm. Tickets are $10 at the door. For more info click here…