Fangtastic

WAURIKA — It will be a few more days before the final numbers are recorded, but if an empty pantry is an indication of success, organizers of the 47th Fangtastic Waurika Rattlesnake Hunt will realize a nice return for their labors.

Proceeds from many of the activities at the three-day snake hunt go to the Waurika Volunteer Fire Department, which coordinates and conducts the annual festival on Main Street.

Attendance on Friday night and Sunday was about average, perhaps a little below. But on Saturday, the combination of good weather and good times brought out an extremely large crowd.

It’s difficult to peg an attendance number, when four blocks are filled with people coming and going at their leisure. Still, Waurika Fire Chief Johnny Berry and City Manager Chuck Brown said if sales at the fire department’s concession stand were a reflection, Saturday’s crowd was either well above average or extremely hungry — or a combination of both.

“We sold out over 300 pounds of snake meat by early in the afternoon, and had 350 turkey legs that we ran out of about 1 (o’clock) on Saturday,” said Brown, who operated the cash register at the department’s stand through much of the Fangtastic experience.

And the run on food went beyond snake and turkey. The firefighter’s stand also sells brisket and other sandwiches and snacks, which evaporated in the Saturday afternoon heat.

“In the years the firefighters have been doing it, we’ve never sold out everything before, but we were out of all the food by 5 (o’clock) Saturday,” Berry said. “We had to make a run to stock up on more food.”

Over 600 pounds of snake meat had accumulated by the time the festival opened on Friday evening. About half that meat is sold raw at the firefighter’s Butcher Shoppe, and the rest if sold in fried form at the concession stand.

“The way it worked out, we could have sold double the snake meat at the concession stand,” Brown noted. “The crowd Saturday was as big as I’ve ever seen.”

Among other events at the 47th Fangtastic Snake Hunt:

n Brittany Luttrell and Zachary Bardin reigned as Snake Hunt Queen and King, while Kaitlyn Porterfield was Princess.

n Contestants for King and Queen sell tickets for a drawing and the $500 first prize was won by Waurika’s Ron Goodwin.

n Joey Jenks had the winning bid of $100 for the snake caught in the longest snake contest.

n Snake contest winners were: Longest — Christy White, Elmore City, 68 inches; Shortest — Garrett Bolin, Ryan, 21 inches; Most Rattles — Jeff Weast, Ryan, 16 rattles plus a button.

n Amateur Kelly Valdez of Lawton had the fastest time of any contestant in the snake sacking contest. Valdez bagged his snakes in 21.30 seconds on Sunday. Ronnie Reed of Marlow had the fastest time for a professional sacker and the second-best time overall, with 30.17 seconds.

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