Concerts May Pave Way For Amphitheater

The News & Advance
Published: September 8, 2008

For a Moneta couple with Nashville connections, the idea was to provide a music scene that would bloom for tourists and residents at Smith Mountain Lake. At the same time,

the venue would give local musicians an opportunity for a start in the entertainment business.

Country star Sara Evans kicked off the concert series under the stars in Bedford County in early August and crowds in the thousands kept coming.

Darren Snyder and Holly Sweet are pushing for that scene to become a common occurrence throughout the summer at their proposed amphitheater on Hendricks Store Road

near Virginia 122 at the lake.

Both are natives of the lake area who became involved as musicians in Nashville. They are still planning the Sweetwater Amphitheater, a 7,000-seat outdoor venue. They

organized the concert series that wrapped up recently as a tune-up for what the amphitheater could feature.

The concerts they brought in were heavyweights in the country music industry, including in addition to Evans, Blake Shelton, Lonestar and Diamond Rio. Other performers

included Styx, Grand Funk Railroad and Christian performer tobyMac.

In the process, they showed that the region not only would support the concerts, but also that they could do it in an orderly manner without problems resulting from crowds or

the traffic associated with them.

And the hayfield setting for the concerts was spectacular. Most of the main events unfolded as the sun was setting. A starry sky covered them as they wrapped up the last

numbers. And while the concerts raised the decibel level somewhat above normal for the Bedford countryside, no complaints were heard from those who were entertained.

Shelton took note of the surroundings and told his audience there is something right about playing “in a pasture down by a lake.” He also said his advisers in Nashville said they

didn’t think he should do the show because the rural setting wasn’t “country enough. What are they talking about?” he asked.

Sweet was happy with the results of the series. “It was definitely a great trial run into the market and whether people would support the outdoor shows,” she said.

“Everything ran smoothly. For six of the (seven) shows, the weather was great.”

When Sweet and Snyder went through a rezoning process for 40 acres of their planned site about a year ago, Bedford County officials passed it without any significant

opposition. One supervisor called it a “jewel” of what the county could offer in terms of entertainment.

Sweet hasn’t given an opening date for the amphitheater, but said the month-long concert series was a good indication of the caliber of performances it plans to attract.

The performances were first-class and the folks in Bedford — indeed the entire region — are in for a treat when the venue is constructed and open. It will surely be a musical

blossom worth waiting for.


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