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Photography & Article By Kimberly Kanuck
Did you know that Oktoberfest at SteelStacks celebrating its 14th year? I like to attend at least once a year and I had the pleasure of attending on Saturday. And what a gorgeous day outside to enjoy the festival! If you’re not familiar, there are a variety of activities besides just drinking delicious German beer and food! There’s plenty of fun for the whole family to enjoy. Here’s the full list of activities to consider: https://www.steelstacks.org/festivals/oktoberfest/oktober-festivities/
But if you enjoy beer as much as I do, there are Biergartens featuring beer from Hofbräu, Sam Adams/Dogfish Head, Spaten, and Yuengling. There’s also a Brewers’ Village (tickets required) where you can sample a variety of beers from over 25 breweries and receive a commemorative mug. For all the foodies with an appetite who enjoy brats, you might want to enter the Karl Ehmer Bratwurst Eating Competition. All you have to do is eat 10 brats (no buns) as fast of you can in front of the judges. Easy, right? Kudos to those participants because that’s quite a lot of brats to eat in one sitting! There’s also the Yuengling Beer Dinner where you can enjoy a delicious four course meal paired with four different Yuengling beers. You’ll learn about the history of Yuengling and the brewing process throughout the meal and you’ll receive a souvenir Yuengling pint glass. I had the opportunity to stop into the dinner and the food looked incredible!
If you want to If you want to test your strength and endurance, you might want to participate in one of the Steinholding competitions, held every hour during the festival. I had the opportunity to watch 2 of these competitions and it’s intense. But the cheers from the crowd keep the participants motivated. Also, did you know that The Pennsylvania State Steinholding Championships are held at Oktoberfest as well? I had no idea and I’ve been attending Oktoberfest for years! The Qualifier Competition was held on 10/5 and the Championships were held yesterday at 6pm.
There’s a glassblowing ‘Hot Glass Experience” where you work with the Banana Factory glassblowing experts to make either a glass pumpkin or acorn. Or you can just watch the artists at work during the glassblowing demonstrations. Another fam favorite not to miss are the wiener dog races. There are 5 in total, which were held this Saturday and Sunday. There were also 2 pup parades this weekend, where I saw some adorable pups in their lederhosen and dirndl costumes!It wouldn’t be an Oktoberfest without some great music, especially German music and polka. There are plenty of options in each Biergarten all day and night. Some of the bands that performed this year were Joe Kroboth Quartet, Pepperwine, Regina Sayles, B.D. Lenz All Stars, Big Bone Daddy, Almrausch Altoona Schuplattlers, Reservoir Hill, GTV Almrausch Schuhplattlers, Sarah Lanier & Carl Palmeri, RadioOne, Honey & Nutz, and Polkadelphia.
I enjoyed my Oktoberfest 2024 experience this year! I ate some tasty German food from Karl Ehmer, listened to some polka from Polkadelphia, watched a few steinholding competitions, drank some German beer, and caught up with some great friends. Thank you ArtsQuest, LVI Airport, and all of the sponsors for putting on another fun festival at SteelStacks!
