2026 Great Northwest Oktoberfest Kicks Off with Locals Night
The action begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1 with Locals Night, where Flathead residents age 21 and over will get into the festivities at Depot Park in downtown Whitefish for free.
By Lauren Frick
Another edition of the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce’s Great Northwest Oktoberfest will kick off Thursday, commencing two weekends of steinholding, chicken dancing, keg hurling, sausage eating and, of course, beer drinking.
The action begins at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1 with Locals Night, where Flathead residents age 21 and over — with a valid ID — will get into the festivities at Depot Park in downtown Whitefish for free. Keg-tapping ceremonies will commence at about 6:15 p.m., signaling the start to an evening of log-sawing, steinholding and polka dancing.
The festival, which has graced the Flathead Valley shoulder season since 2010, will run for two weekends, from Oct. 1-3 and Oct. 8-10. There will also be an Oct. 7 Hop Queen qualifier competition for the festival’s annual Hop Queen pageant at the Grouse Mountain Lodge, with a new Hop Queen being crowned on Thursday, Oct. 8, under the Oktoberfest Bigtop.
Tickets are $10 — kids under 12 are free with a parent — and are available only at the main gate in Depot Park on the day of the festival.
Much of what locals have come to know and love about the festival will be largely the same this year. Men’s and women’s log-sawing is back again after the two-person event made its return in 2025 following a hiatus of several years because of issues with insurance coverage.
One of the festival’s signature events — steinholding — will feature contests throughout both weekends, with multiple men’s and women’s competitions being offered each day of the festival. On Oct. 10, the final day of the festival, top steinholders from across the western U.S. square-off for bragging rights and to have their name etched on the prestigious Kevin Collom Cup as part of the Oktoberfest Steinholding Championships. The title-clinching event starts at 9 p.m. at the main stage.
As for the beer that will be filling steins this year, The Great Northwest Oktoberfest will have a selection of regional and German beers on tap. Hofbräu beers will include its Oktoberfest, dunkel, original lager and hefeweizen. Beers from Bayern Brewery in Missoula will include the Bayern Oktoberfest, Montana Original Light Lager, St. Walter Hefeweizen and pilsener lager. The festival will also be selling wine, hard seltzer, non-alcoholic beer, cider, water and soda.
Food vendors include The Sausage Queen, Piroshki Palace, Knucklehed BBQ, The Corndog House, Sodalightful, NW Island Noodles, Posh & Yob and Mountain Culture Creamery.
Entertainment and music for the first weekend will be paced by The MAC (Montana Artist Collective) Band, who is back for an encore performance after “wowing” the crowd on Local’s Night last year. Performing as The MAC-toberfest Band, the group will keep the dancefloor hoppin’ Oct. 1-3, playing four sets between 5:30 and 10:30 p.m. each night.
The Bavarian Echoes, the Flathead Valley’s own 20-piece Bavarian Orchestra, take over on Saturday afternoons from 1-5 p.m. under the Oktoberfest Bigtop. The group also provides the soundtrack to the Chicken Dance Championships at 2:45 p.m.
Closing out the weekend is Bavarski — a group that hails from the wilds of northern New Jersey and plays all the classic German/Oktoberfest tunes while putting a modern rock’ n roll twist on it to keep everyone on the dance floor all night long.
Ron, Eddie, Ernie and Wayne are a “new breed” of polka players, fusing German, Slovenian and Polish-American music with jazz, rock and New World influences to create a one-of-a-kind, high-energy show that will grace the Great Northwest Oktoberfest for the very first time this year. Bavarski takes the stage from 5:30 and 10:30 p.m. the second weekend of Oktoberfest, Oct. 8-10.
For more information about the 2026 Great Northwest Oktoberfest, click here. For a full schedule of events, click here.