A Sweet Shed Proposal

A Nashville couple has begun meeting with Bedford County officials and residents to gauge interest in a 7,000-seat amphitheatre in Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake area, to be called Sweetwater Amphitheatre at Eastlake.

Darrin Snyder, an audio engineer who has also worked as production, set and stage manager for country singer Darryl Worley, and his wife, Holly Sweet, propose to build the shed on 56 acres in Moneta, Va., between Roanoke and Lynchberg, according to the Roanoke Times.

As proposed, it would include a permanent stage and covered seating for 2,500, plus lawn seating for 4,500. The couple hopes to open Sweetwater by April 2008.

The couple has an option to buy the land, Sweet told the paper, but declined to estimate the project’s cost or comment on how it would be financed.

They might have some competition, however. A month before Snyder and Sweet made their announcement, a consultant unveiled a feasiblity study to the Roanoke City Council for a 7,000-seat amphitheatre in that city.