CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — After being scaled back the past few years, the Freer Rattlesnake Roundup was back in full force over at the Duval-Freer Airport.
This event is put on by the Freer Chamber of Commerce every year, and because Freer is such a rattlesnake dominant area, it is the city's largest festival of the year.
Miss Freer 2022 Zabella Lane was in attendance with her court, all decked out in snake print. "We had our pageant in June, so we were told we were getting this year's roundup in 2022. We're getting the roundup after COVID, so we're all coming back. We have live music, the food, the snake meat, the snakes. We're super excited to be out here today," said Lane.
Every year a live snake pit is featured and one of this year's big contributors is a group called The Snakebusters. They are snake handlers who catch and sell rattlesnakes, and put on a show at the festival.
Snakebusters President Eddie Palacios told 3NEWS, "It feels great, we've had a couple of years laid back, because of the pandemic, but everybody's excited to have it back and get it going again."
It's never an easy feat for organizers to get everything into place, especially after a pandemic, but they made it happen.
"It's a lot of work. It takes a whole year to prepare for something like this. We've got to get some eggs and we've got to be buying from the people. It's always kind of worrisome if we're going to have enough or not. This year, so far, is a bit slow, but we still managed to have it. We have about 16 to 18 snakes in the pit and close to 100 pounds of snake meat to cook," said Palacios.
The festival looked like a great time and the community was thrilled to get back to old traditions.
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