Normal Park will host the 2nd annual Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday, September 28, from 2 p.m.-9 p.m. The event will be open to the public, with no admission fee. So don your traditional German costumes (tracht and leiderhosen if you have them!) and come out for food, music & dancing, beer, games, and fun for the whole family.
Merrill and outlying areas in north central Wisconsin have a rich German heritage, and this now annual Oktoberfest festival is a great way to celebrate German traditions. Food options will include brats from Geiss’s Meat Service, hot dogs, German potato salad, warm soft pretzels, homemade mac & cheese, and desserts, and, of course, there will be lots of beer!
Sawmill Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest and IPA, Sand Creek Hard Lemonade, and soda will be available. (Cash only for concessions.)
There will be music and plenty of room to polka, with music all afternoon and evening by The Jim Pekol Band and the Dan Gruetzmacher Orchestra. And at 5:00 PM, the festival will include something new this year: Pommersche Danz Gruppe (Pomeranian Dancers) of Wausau will perform German folk dances from their native homeland, a German province named Pomerania that was absorbed into Poland and part of Eastern Germany in 1945 at the end of World War II.
Wearing authentic costumes and performing a variety of couple and group dances, including the Wadmal, an interpretive dance of a weaving loom, viewers will be drawn in by their lusty, exuberant Pomeranian German style dancing and their boundless energy. You won’t want to miss it!
Plus there will be lawn games like cornhole, ladder golf, washers, lawn Jenga, kubb, and more … with food, music, games, and more … there’s something for the entire family. It should come as no surprise that Saint Stephens United Church of Christ, itself an historically German church originally known as “Ev. St. Stephan’s Kirche” founded by a group of German immigrants in Merrill, originated this Oktoberfest event.
Truth be told, the idea to hold the first Oktoberfest originated over beers at the Sawmill Brewery when the pastor at the time said, “Wouldn’t it be fun if we threw an Oktoberfest for the whole town?” And the rest, as they say, is history … and a fun way to celebrate our area’s German history.
Oktoberfest is a traditional folk festival held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running 16 to 18 days from mid or late September until the first weekend in October. It began more
than 200 years ago in 1810 and is a celebration of the Bavarian German culture. Areas of the world rich in German heritage (Wisconsin being among them) have adopted Oktoberfest
celebrations of their own to continue to celebrate their German heritage.
If you’d like to help with this annual Oktoberfest event, this year or for the future, you are invited to call 715.536.7322 (ask for Tina).