MORE ABOUT US
Snake Prairie is a forgotten community along Hwy. 304 approximately 2 miles north of Rosanky. It had its beginnings around 1868 and lasted until 1891 when the railroad built a depot in Rosanky. Like many small towns of the era, it moved to the new center of commerce. Snake Prairie was big enough for a school, general store, post office, and was an official voting precinct. It could be classified as a ghost town if any buildings remained from that era, but they do not. Maybe we could call it a ghost prairie since it only exists in oral histories and newspaper reports of the era.
Snake Prairie Events is located within earshot of the former community. We figured that naming our venue and venture after it would be a quaint nod to our history and what has come before. We hope that the ghosts in the rumored cemetery there don't mind the mix of music we send their way. Hopefully they think it is a nice addition.
Our venue sits on old family land dating to the 1930s when A.N. and Myra Kelley owned 300 acres of wild farmland. Our portion was purchased by their daughter and her husband, Mildred and W.T. Machen in the 1950s. In the early 2000s, the land was passed on to its third and fourth-generation landowners, and here we are today. Agriculture is still the dominant fixture of our land, but it now welcomes occasional guests who are interested in listening to the varied sounds of music that is hosted here.
Pasture performances have replaced the house dances of old.
THE HITCHING
Why have a wedding when you can throw a music festival?
So how did we get here?
Your Snake Prairie hosts, Erik and Laurie, are big concert aficionados. Independently, they had attended and worked major music festivals, and even booked a few shows for other organizations. Once they got together, their musical confluences united to create a venue where they could tinker with their own ideas and bring music out to their house, hoping the fans would follow.
The Austin City Limits Music Fest in 2018 proved a spark that would move their ideas forward. Having already attended the fest the prior weekend to see Erik's favorite heavy metal group Metallica, Laurie decided it might be fun to go to Weekend Two just for Metallica — again — but to bring her son Colton to his first heavy metal festival show. It was a rock solid plan.
The week in between, Erik entered to win Snake Pit passes for the Metallica show. For those not in-the-know, the Snake Pit is the area in front of the stage surrounded by a "V" catwalk in which the band can run down and perform on. So, the Snake Pit is like being in the middle of the stage, on the ground as the titans of metal thrash above you. Erik figured that he'd never get chosen for the Snake Pit considering the thousands of requests that the Met Club gets for them online. But the Wednesday before the show, he got an email announcing that he had been chosen. After he cleared the tears from his eyes, he figured that this would be the most metal setting ever for a marriage proposal, a scene that might not happen again.
So with three days planning, Erik, Laurie, and Colton entered the Snake Pit as Disturbed was opening for Metallica and a most epic day unfolded. Not only did Colton get to shake the hands of all four Metallica members and get some rad guitar picks, but after the final encore, Erik asked Laurie to get hitched. This set into motion the plans to build a stage and host their own micro-fest on August 3, 2019, headlined by the best Metallica tribute band in America. They called it Hitchfest. Because why have a boring wedding when you can throw a music festival and really have some fun?
Erik and Laurie got hitched right before ONE-The Only Tribute to Metallica performed.
