Dance music is blasting through the speakers, beach balls are flying in the air, and half-naked revelers are chugging beer after beer.
But don’t mistake this for a Las Vegas pool party or a fraternity rager.
This is the Snake Pit – a sea of red, white, blue, and booze.
The Snake Pit is a time-honored tradition of the Indy 500, bringing tens of thousands of fans to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Memorial Day Weekend every year.
The Snake Pit is a time-honored tradition of the Indy 500, bringing thousands of fans to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Memorial Day Weekend every year
They come with coolers packed to the brim with alcohol, outfits decorated with the Stars and Stripes, and livers ready for a very long fight
The actual race becomes background noise for the beer pong tournaments and shotgun drinking contests and dips into the kiddie pools filled with ice and Bud Light
They come with coolers packed to the brim with alcohol, outfits decorated with the Stars and Stripes, and livers ready for a very long fight.
The actual race becomes background noise for the beer pong tournaments and shotgun drinking contests and dips into the kiddie pools filled with ice and Bud Light.
One woman proudly wears a shirt reading ‘We the people are wasted’. Another shirt proclaims this is the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Drinking’.
‘Most of the people who come to this could give a f**k less about racing,’ attendee Alan Coxhead told Deadspin at the Snake Pit this year.
One man in the Snake Pit happily guzzles his Coors Light beer as his friends laugh and smile in the background
As crazy as it may seem, the current Snake Pit is a far cry from its heyday in the seventies and eighties – an era that is now described as a ‘combination of Woodstock and Spring Break for thousands of Midwestern kids’
The current Snake Pit now more closely resembles a music festival, featuring performances all day from major DJs
That seems clear when, by the time the racer is crowned and takes their famed sip of milk, most people in the Snake Pit are passed out underneath tables and chairs.
As crazy as it may seem, the current Snake Pit is a far cry from its heyday in the seventies and eighties – an era that is now described as a ‘combination of Woodstock and Spring Break for thousands of Midwestern kids’.
With far less police and regulation, parties at the Snake Pit were known to get messy, muddy, and naked.
‘One year, back in the mid-70s, when streaking was the big craze, there must’ve been about 500 naked people on the track roaming around,’ Tom Farrar, who has gone to the Indy 500 for 52 years straight, recalled.
This year’s Snake Pit stage included performances from Diplo, Deadmau5, GRiZ, and Axwell and Ingrosso
Steps were taken to get the Snake Pit under control after someone died when a Jeep flipped over in 1980
Now there is far more law enforcement on hand and the days of burning cars and getting naked in the mud are long gone
‘People would pour beer on the ground and make a mudslide, get all muddy, and take their clothes off,’ Richard Heard, who has been to the Snake Pit every year since 1972, remembered.
‘Things have changed a whole big bunch. The Speedway is trying to make it a family-friendly environment, and they don’t let that stuff go on anymore.’
That’s because there was a dark side to the Snake Pit as well. There were plenty of fights and drunk attendees were known to flip over cars and set them on fire.
When someone died after a Jeep flipped over in 1980, and steps were taken to get things more under control.
It’s not uncommon to see people drinking out of CamelBaks and, by the end of the day, for many to be passed out
Many people in the Snake Pit choose to wear American flag apparel, turning it into a sea of red, white, blue, and booze
Others are known to dress up in costume for the annual event, including this couple who came as Santa Claus and an elf
Now the Snake Pit more closely resembles a music festival, with corporate sponsors, big name DJ headliners, and even its own apparel.
‘No, this isn’t your mom and dad’s Snake Pit,’ the Indy 500 website reads.
‘That was a one-of-a-kind place, for better or worse. But the new Snake Pit still has the attitude, spirit and mojo of the original. It’s the ultimate place to party during the Indianapolis 500.’
The proof, clearly, is in the pictures.
The Snake Pit has become a full-fledged official event and now has corporate sponsors and its own apparel
A crowd of Snake Pit attendees cheer and enjoy the music and beach balls are thrown in the massive crowd