Hickory Ridge Music Festival

ABOUT HICKORY RIDGE
The Story of Mike Sanders & Dale Sweazea

Hickory Ridge Music Festival is the brain child of two true small town southern boys that love family, bikes, Red Dirt and Texas Music, and of course, beer. So, the idea began in a huge field just outside Wetumka, Oklahoma after a few times of sitting on the tailgate of a truck - of course, drinkin beer… how so many good ideas are created. Mike, the owner of Sanders Construction, and Dale the owner of Sweazea’s Custom Meat Processing apparently had had too much to drink because they were trying to come up with an idea to use the very large piece of land they were sitting on for something besides growing hay and of course, drinkin beer. As the result of these two long time friends sitting and drinkin, the first Hickory Ridge Music Festival was born in 2009. Since not having any experience with the music business, they were thinkin “where do we start?” So being the fun loving southern boys they are - you guessed it, drinkin beer and going to the honky tonks up and down the eastern side of Oklahoma in search of bands. As the result, with the support of Golden Pony Casino and of course, Budweiser, the guys were able to put together a very good line up of regional original artists from the Red Dirt and Texas Music scene. Well, as they quickly learned, that was not all there was to it. After starting to run into obstacles and thinking “well, what do we do next?”, they enlisted the help of QMP Management. Well, with everything put in place and going smoothly, the first band started on time on August 14th, 2009 and the music continued all through the day and night of the next day virtually problem free. But there was one big problem; As with so many ideas the first time around, there just was not enough people who attended. So with the guys walking away with their heads held down and their beer budget cut below the half way mark, they didn’t have a clue as to how to try it again. But guess what, Red Dirt and Texas Music fans? It will be back in 2010 and even bigger and better because of the help and sponsorship of Golden Pony Casino and many others that saw the potential and wanted to help two good ole boys in Oklahoma keep their dream alive and build this festival in the years to come into one of the biggest festivals in Oklahoma history. To be able to present the best in artists and song writers from the Red Dirt and Texas Music movement, which today is some of the best and most inspiring music to be offered. Also, for the fans of the music to have a place to spend a weekend of great music and fun at a price that people can afford… and of course, don’t forget… drinkin beer. So folks, guess the morale to this story is before you go gittin drunk and thinking you want to get in the concert game, make dang sure before you pop the top on that next can, that you have already got a helluva lot of hay already grown!

In the great words of Bartles & Jaymes
Mike & Dale would like say
We Thank You For Your Support