Can’t make it to Germany for Oktoberfest? Well, you’re in luck, as a little bit of Deutschland is coming to the Flathead Valley this year.
The Whitefish Chamber of Commerce will host the inaugural Great Northwest Oktoberfest on Oct. 14 through Oct. 17 at Depot Park, an event that promises to bring a little bit of Munich to Montana.
Oktoberfest is a German event with its roots in Munich. The festival is 200 years old this year, and originated as a wedding party for German royalty where everyone in town was invited. Munich now draws about 6 million visitors every October who drink about 5 million liters of beer, according to the city’s website.
While Whitefish will not see quite that level of traffic, Kevin Gartland, the chamber’s executive director, said the city’s Oktoberfest celebration will offer plenty of traditional, family-oriented German events over four days. It will not be just another beer festival, he said.
“There’s a lot of things that go on,” Gartland said. “It’s not a brewfest; there’s brewfests going on every weekend here in Montana.”
The event list includes a keg-throwing contest, called the “World Keg Hurling Competition,” with qualifying rounds on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons and the finals on Sunday. The keg-hurling pit will be located near the Oktoberfest Bigtop, which is another homage to the German tradition.
There will also be a log-sawing contest for pairs in both the men’s and women’s division, and hourly contests on the music stage that include the brutal Macho Men and Lovely Ladies stein-holding competitions.
“It’s kind of like ‘Survivor’ meets Munich,” Gartland said.
Anyone present can participate and the games tend to get more uproarious and competitive as the night wears on.
While all the day-time activities are appropriate for families, Gartland said Saturday is devoted to kids at the festival, which includes bounce houses, arts and crafts and a traditional volksmarch, during which German families walk through their towns and enjoy their surroundings.
The Whitefish version, the North Valley Volksmarch, is a 5k walk through downtown and along the Whitefish River, Gartland said, and anyone of any ability or age is invited to participate.
Sunday brings the Great Northwest Waitress Races, during which three-person relay teams will run with two, four and six liters of beer, trying not to spill. Gartland advises getting there early for a seat, but also to beware of where those seats are in case the race ends in a splash.
No Oktoberfest celebration would be complete without music, and the chamber has lined up The Western Senators from Canada to play polkas, waltzes and country music to kick off the weekend. The 17-piece local band, the Bavarian Echoes, is also scheduled to perform their authentic oom-pa-pa tunes and blow their 20-foot Bavarian alpenhorns.
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The Great Northwest Oktoberfest will be held the 14-17 at Depot Park in downtown Whitefish. |
Audience participation is requested on Friday and Saturday nights, when the chamber will pass out sheet music for traditional German songs in the big tent.
But at the heart of any Oktoberfest celebration is food and beer. One of the Great Northwest Oktoberfest’s biggest sponsors is the Great Northern Brewing Company, Gartland said, and they will have an array of brews available.
There will also be beer from Boston’s Sam Adams Brewery and Bayern Brewing in Missoula among others, including two kegs of the German beer, Spaten, which is pegged as the original brew-of-choice for Munich-goers.
The Whitefish Chamber will prepare traditional German fare, including bratwurst, knackwurst and smoked brats, oven-roasted Hofbrauhaus chicken, and sauerkraut, red cabbage and German potato salad.
Other vendors will carry customary soft pretzels, apple and huckleberry strudel, Black Forest cheesecake, gingerbread cookies and Bavarian cheese and onion tarts.
For those who need some diversity, there will be other vendors available as well, including Mexican food and barbecue selections.
As for arts and crafts vendors, Gartland said 20 of the 40 booth spaces are already filled, and he expects the projected 3,000-person crowd to do plenty of pre-Christmas shopping throughout the weekend.
While the event will offer locals a time to enjoy the fall weather, Gartland said the impetus behind Oktoberfest is to drive some more tourism dollars into Whitefish during the shoulder season.
The city’s hotels, restaurants and streets are full during the summer and winter months, he said, but the fall and spring seasons often have people out of work until the next big tourism bump.
“After Labor Day it really drops off like a cliff,” Gartland said. “The Chamber has been working on our economic development overall strategy focusing on improving tourism during shoulder season.”
Gartland is confident to begin this economic push with Oktoberfest because he has seen it succeed in other communities. The Whitefish event should be no different, he said.
“It’s all about having fun, getting people involved,” Gartland said. “It’s really about getting out and enjoying what we have here in Whitefish.”
Oktoberfest runs from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, which is also locals’ night, so those with a Flathead County driver’s license get in free. Friday, Oct. 15, hours are 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and on Saturday, Oct. 16, will run from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 17, will go from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the Oktoberfest Bigtop is $3 for adults, with kids under 12 accompanied by parents free.
For more information, call the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce, at (406) 862-3501, or check out their website at www.whitefishchamber.org.