Oktoberfest - La Crosse, WI

One of the biggest happenings in the upper Midwest each fall is the annual Oktoberfest celebration in La Crosse, WI. This year marked the 46th annual Oktoberfest in La Crosse, which ran from September 29 thru October 7 this year.

In conjunction with the old G. Heileman Brewery, the city of La Crosse started Oktoberfest in 1961 to showcase the greater La Crosse area and scheduled the event to coincide with the changing of the leaves in the area. Oktoberfest is actually privately owned by a La Crosse Festivals, Inc. which has sponsored and coordinated the festival since 1965.

When I was in La Crosse recently, I took the time to go to Oktoberfest for a short while. It was during the late morning hour, so a brat and a beer were in order. It usually costs $5 bucks to get in (you actually buy a button for $5 bucks or you buy an Oktoberfest hat for $20 bucks). That gets you in to the grounds, I believe for any day you want to go. However, that day, it was free admission.

My first stop was the beer tent. Actually, it was more of a beer lean-to. Since it was still in the morning and there weren't a lot of people there, only one guy was working the tent. He wasn't all that busy.

The beer sold at Oktoberfest is all brewed in La Crosse by the Pearl Street Brewery, a small micro-brewery; and City Brewery, the brewery that grew out of the old remnants of the G. Heileman Brewery when it closed up a number of years ago. I ordered up a Pearl Street Pale Ale and got to talking to the bartender.

He told me, "Well, you certainly came on one of the two slowest days of Oktoberfest." He said the busiest days are the first two days when they have crowds approaching 10,000 people that crowd into the south festival grounds (they have a north festival grounds that is more family oriented and only open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.). He said that the Tuesday and Wednesday are the slowest days and there's usually no admission those days.

They have a huge beer hall on the south grounds that it big enough to have two stages in it. The bartender told me that they'll have bands come in and play and it's usually a regular zoo in there.

He said that they have a huge torchlight parade on the Thursday night of Oktoberfest. He said they start out around sunset (about 6:30 p.m.) and travel through the streets to the north festival grounds. He said, "It's too bad that you aren't going to be around. It's quite the sight."

Here's some of the local guys dressed up for the occasion having a cold one at 11:30 in the morning. My kind of guys.

I stayed there long enough to talk to him, garner more info on Oktoberfest, and then order another beer, this time a City Brewery Pale Ale. I tried to give him a tip and he pushed the money back at me and said, "Aw, man. I don't need the tip. Just have fun."

Here's a couple that was standing next to me at the beer tent. I'm tellin' ya - they really get into it at Oktoberfest.

They had a band playing on the stage in the beer tent area. These guys were called the Jim Bee Three (right) and they were actually pretty damn good. They played a lot of 60's and 70's tunes and a couple old standards. They worked the crowd pretty well. Well, what there was of a crowd there.

I had to have a brat to go with my beer. Here's the brat house that served some great brats with sauerkraut. I'm glad I got there when I did, because the noontime crowd was just beginning to show up and with free admission that day, the line at the brat house got to be pretty long rather quickly.

And here's what an Oktoberfest brat and a half drank glass of City Brewery Pale Ale look like. It was damn good.

I walked around the grounds for a little while getting some shots. Here's the main walk-way going down to the rides in the midway. Like I said, the north grounds about a half mile away are more family oriented and they have more rides.

But there are a bunch of places to eat if you don't want brats (which, at Oktoberfest, I wouldn't see why they wouldn't want to eat brats). Of course, there's cheese. Here's one of the guys from the fried cheese curd place (right). I loved the apron.

Here's the main tent (left) where people would eat their brats during the lunch hour. Actually, it was a beautiful day and I don't know why they'd want to sit under the tent.

I actually got to meet Miss La Crosse, Kristina Smaby (left). Not only does she get to be Miss La Crosse and vie for the chance to become Miss Wisconsin in the Miss America pageant, she gets to be Miss Oktoberfest. She said that Miss Oktoberfest is a better gig than trying to become Miss Wisconsin. (Update - Kristina did eventually win the 2009 Miss Wisconsin pageant and represented the state in the 2010 Miss America pageant.)

But, I had to get rolling so a brat, a couple beers and a few pictures were all I could go for. Although Oktoberfest during the weekday isn't close to the excitement and fun that you'd have on the weekends, at least I was able to go and have a small slice of a great tradition in La Crosse. I'm not certain that I could handle a crowd of 10,000 drunks in such a small area, but it may be fun to try.

Comments

[Anne Trennedy]

Wow! You were at Oktoberfest in La Crosse? That is so AWESOME!! I miss La Crosse and especially Oktoberfest. You need to go on the opening weekend. Yes, it's crazy, but it's SOOOO fun! Love your site!