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Photo Credit to Jeff Auger
Attendance of 38,500 festival goers over two weekends in October!
Bethlehem, PA, October 19, 2023 – ArtsQuest hosted its 13th annual Oktoberfest presented by Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE) at SteelStacks. This year’s attendance was estimated to be 38,500 over the two weekends of the festival. (Fri. Oct. 6 – Sun. Oct. 8 and Fri. Oct. 13 – Sun. Oct. 15).
“Another successful year of Oktoberfest presented by Lehigh Valley International Airport is in the books for ArtsQuest,” said Kassie Hilgert, President and CEO of ArtsQuest. “This year we offered a great mix of programming from PierogiPalooza to the Steinholidng Competition presented by Samuel Adams to traditional German fair and phenomenal music of a variety of genres. We really enjoy bringing this annual event to our campus and the community each fall.”
This year featured numerous brews, food vendors, crafters and retailers and tons of fun events for the local community and beyond to enjoy. Events included the Yuengling 5k, Brewer’s Village presented by Lehigh Valley Brewers Guild, PierogiPalooza, Stein Hoisting Competition, Wiener Dog Races, and so much more. There were fan-favorite food vendors such as Heaven on a Bun, Heidi’s Strudels and Karl Ehmer’s.
“Oktoberfest 2023 was a fun-filled two weekends for all who came out,” said Eric Bauder, Senior Events Manager at ArtsQuest. “We were able to enlarge the footprint of the festival this year which allowed for additional vendor space, which also created a better flow for attendees and patrons. With added space, there was plenty of room for visiting all four of the biergartens, space for playing games as well as the Stein Hoisting competition and a larger arena viewing area for the Wiener dog races and parade.”
This year’s festival highlighted craft brews such as Yuengling, Samuel Adams and so much more. Brewers’ Village presented by The Lehigh Valley Brewers’ Guild featured all the above brews plus 37 additional brews from around Pennsylvania. In addition to Brewers’ Village presented by The Lehigh Valley Brewers’ Guild, The Yuengling Oktoberfest 5k in partnership with Run Lehigh Valley was back and better than ever this year! We had close to 1,300 participants in the race this year!
The Weiner Dog Races had yet another successful year with over 100 dogs competing and sold-out races. Crowds came to watch the doggos race in the Oktoberfest Arena. The Pennsylvania State Steinholding Championship presented by Samuel Adams hit the ground running with 70 participants and 300 patrons in attendance to watch these Oktoberfest goers sweat it out in fierce competition. Brand new this year was the Oktoberfest Fashion Contest, where the President of Pizazz and the Chancellor of Charisma were crowned and awarded $100 each. Additional activities included Karaoke with Royal, the Pup Parade, The Oktoberfest Kong Pong Tournament presented by Yuengling, the Oktoberfest Hot Glass Experience and additional lawn games.
We thank all of our wonderful patrons for coming out to another great year of Oktoberfest presented by Lehigh Valley International Airport and our partners.
About ArtsQuest
ArtsQuest’s mission is to provide access to exceptional artistic, cultural and educational experiences using arts and culture as key elements of economic development for our urban communities. ArtsQuest™ supports this mission via the presentation of performing and visual arts, film, arts education classes and outreach, youth programming and cultural events. Through festivals such as its flagship event, Musikfest; the Banana Factory Arts Center; and the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks arts and cultural campus, ArtsQuest’s programming reaches more than 1.9 million people annually. The organization’s programs and events, of which over 50% are free to attend, have a combined economic impact of more than $136 million annually in the region.
Information provided to TVL by:
Abigail Wolf
http://www.artsquest.org/
