Baker
The Snake Valley Festival
The big event in Baker in June is the Snake Valley Festival, June 17-19, 2016. This three-day festival, always held the third weekend of June, provides lots of family-friendly fun while raising money for the Great Basin Water Network, which is providing legal and hydrologic expertise to help protect Snake Valley’s water.
The Festival kicks off on Friday with a variety of booths and an ice cream social at Baker Hall in the center of town. Choose your flavors and relax to local music while catching up with the happenings around the area. Then it’s time for the beer tasting, with all brews using water from the Great Basin. From 7 to 9 p.m. there’s a silent auction of selected items.
Saturday morning start the day at the community breakfast and then browse the yard sale (name-your-own-price), book sale, and other booths. At 10 a.m. watch the small town parade. It goes around town twice, just to make sure you see everything well! Then the free kids’ games and solar telescope viewing start on the Baker Hall lawn, and inside is a giant silent auction and pie/bake sale.
When you work up your appetite, lunch options start at the Community center and food booths. From 1 – 3 p.m.
there is free entertainment on the Baker Hall lawn. A lot of the activities wind down about 3 p.m. That means it’s time for the massive water fight at the Baker playground. Bring your water guns and be prepared to get soaked! The free hour-long water fight leaves everyone who enters the field drenched. Spectators can stay on the side in a safe area.
New this year to the festival schedule is the luau at the Whispering Elms at 4 p.m. Wear your best Hawaiian shirt! Then there’s the perennial favorite BBQ at the Border Inn beginning at 5:30 p.m. At 7 p.m., the winners of the 50:25:25 raffle and road art contest will be announced. Then it’s time for the Pageant and Talent Show. Anyone can enter, and four age categories help make more winners! The talent is just a minute long and in the past has included setting up a tent, giving a haircut, telling jokes while lifting weights, and eating a stick of butter. You don’t know what you will see! Winners are determined by a money vote and crowned. If you still have energy, check out Great Basin National Park’s astronomy program at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday there’s just one event, but it’s a great one: the Snake Valley Slither 5k/10k and Kids’ Race. This starts at the Baker Fuel and RV station and is a trail run/walk. Slither your way to the finish line and you’re rewarded with a homemade Orange Julius or mochacino.
To get all the details, check out the Snake Valley Festival website. This is the biggest event for the town for the entire year, and it’s a lot of fun!
— Gretchen Baker
