November 2001 - Nr. 11
ZICKE-ZACKE, ZICKE-ZACKE, HOI HOI HOI
by Herwig Wandschneider
If
you attended Oktoberfest in Kitchener-Waterloo (K-W) this year, you will
know that you yelled out hoi hoi hoi more than 33 times. Or maybe you do not
remember…. Anyway, you would not have cared that this was the 33rd
time Oktoberfest was put on, and as in all previous years, it grew and
rolled, or maybe gsuffa’d and polka’d bigger and better as every
previous year.
Who knows how everyone got here. But come they did. After September 11, there was this notion in the air that attendance would be down. But the question of not having Oktoberfest was heresy and was not seriously considered. Not by the organizers, not by the many Canadian or American participants. On the contrary. The show had to go on and for more reasons than usual. It started October 5 and stopped October 13 this year.
If
you have never attended Oktoberfest, and cannot imagine yourself in
Lederhosen, Stein in hand, yelling hoi hoi hoi, singing eins-zwei-g’suffa
and dancing the Polka, rest assured you have missed something. It may not be
the music you would listen to more than once a year, but will it ever sink
in! Deeper and deeper with every Stein you raise.
And
if all you want to do is act like a tourist with your usual pants and no
hat, who admires and photographs all these nutty people in Lederhosen and
funny hats with feathers, and beer bellies as they "schunkel" to
oom-pah-pah, bring your video camera; your neighbors will not believe that
this species exists. But watch out, you may be back next year, neighbors and
Lederhosen in hand, well perhaps wearing them is better, hat on head and
joining the good times for all 9 days.
But plan it now. Not likely that you get tickets for the major events a couple of weeks in advance. You will not enjoy the line-up and find there are no tickets, if you got here all the way from Minneapolis or Toronto. After all, this is the biggest Oktoberfest in all of North America.
Oktoberfest starts well before your action begins. Preparation for selection of Miss Oktoberfest will be under-way a week before, and the actual competition is Thursday (This year it was Oct 4). The "Miss O" will have then all the time to participate in all activities, hold speeches and participate in just about every event. This year, Miss Karen Long from West Virginia was selected from 14 candidates to be Oktoberfest’s charming ambassador.
What to do? You will flip through some 60 pages of brochure to select the events. If you survived the opening ceremonies "The Tapping of the Keg" at City Hall on Friday, the "Willkommen Platz" activities on the weekend, still have money coming out of the "Spiel Casino" at Bingemans and seen the Great Barrel Race, had a hearty breakfast before watching the "Bogenschuetzen" shoot down the styrofoam eagle piece by piece at Hubertushaus, seen the Oktoberfest Strongmen challengers pull trucks, lift cars, participate in the Mountain bike races etc etc, you will absolutely want to be there Thanksgiving Monday morning to watch the 2-hour Oktoberfest parade.
Led
by Supersize Onkel Hans, the Oktoberfest Mascot, it started sharp at 8:45
this year at King & Erb Streets in Waterloo under sunny, if fresh,
skies. It was an impressive show of floats, politicians in or on convertible
Mustangs (the ones made by Ford), bands with a dynamic beat, flags and
cheerleaders’ enthusiasm from Canada and the USA.
Molson’s impressive beer-barrel wagon with its line-up of familiar sturdy beer-barrel horses was followed moments later by Brick, the local but growing Waterloo brewery proudly announcing on its little wagon drawn by little horses that they are the second largest brewery in this parade.
They
came with dozens of Red Jeepsters from Ohio. There was an amazing US and
Canadian Flag display of emergency services personnel proudly holding the
flags in honor of the September 11 rescuers. And if there is no time to see
a local attraction, the Woolwich Township’s Covered Bridge, in real life,
you could see a huge replica pulled through the 5-km parade route, which
ends in Kitchener at King and Cedar. As if all of this is not enough, there
were dozens of Skydivers to entertain, zooming from the sky in flying colors
in doubles and triples towards the ground at speeds and spirals that made
your heart beat faster just watching it. The entire route was lined with
young and old 5 deep on either side of the street and there was not a soul,
who did not enjoy it.
For the second year now there is a celebration of German Pioneer Day on Tuesday (see separate story), which will be celebrated every year from here on.
And if your Lederhosen still fits you after all the Beer and Oktoberfest sausages at all the venues you attended all the Long Weekend long, the clubs are open throughout the week of course. Dance, eat and drink, watch the Schuhplattlers and Dancers perform their magic and magic it is. Onkel Hans appears everywhere unexpectedly. You have 18 venues to choose from. And there is so much going on throughout the week, you need to refer to the website calendar at www.oktoberfest.ca.
The final official event takes place Midnight Saturday, the 9th day, when organizers and friends gather on the "Willkommen Platz", sing "Auf Wiedersehen" and bang the bung back into the barrel.
On a serious note, Oktoberfest is intended for hilarious good times. Since Oktoberfest has this reputation of being somewhat synonymous with drinking beer and eating sausages with sauerkraut, there is a watchful eye looking over the situation to ensure that things do not run out of control. Police officers are on patrol, extra security is on board at all the venues to ensure the age of majority is observed, and clubs take special care to avoid serving alcohol to minors. To help things along there is the Pepsi Dedicated Driver Program, the free bus rides on the weekend at certain times, and plenty of taxis. This year, the driving infractions were down considerably in most areas, and no club needed to be fined for serving minors. Thanks to excellent management and cooperation.
