We attended Oktoberfest in Amana Iowa last weekend. They do it right with great beer, great food, and great German bands.

Oktoberfest History

Amana’s Oktoberfest is actually held in October each year. Traditionally, though, Oktoberfest is celebrated in Munich, Germany for 16-18 days leading up to the first Sunday in October. So this year’s Amana event ended correctly; it just didn’t start soon enough! I’m sure the people who worked over the past weekend thought it was plenty of time.

Begun in 1810 as a wedding celebration, the festival typically opens with a tapping of a beer keg, and a parade of merry-makers enjoying a beverage from said keg.

But, contrary to popular opinion, Oktoberfest is not only about the beer! In Munich, the event includes a carnival atmosphere with games and rides, vendors, music, side shows, and lots of fun for entire families.

When in Rome, er, Munich…

Tony and I have attended many Oktoberfests in our 20 years together. No doubt Tony attended many more before he met me.

We also visited Munich during Oktoberfest in 2004. One of our hopes is to return some day.

We used to enjoy the Oktoberfests at Alpine Village in Torrance, California before we moved away, and subsequently the village closed. Don’t blame us!

When we moved to northern California, Tony was instrumental in having Oktoberfest returned to the Lake County calendars. Previously discontinued because of excessive problems with drinking, Tony helped organize lots of fun and activities to more closely mimic the Munich experience.

Floating Festers

Hmmm, maybe I should think of a different word to describe us. In any case, for the past few years we’ve been without a home Oktoberfest. Not to worry, though, as we attend any fest we are close enough to attend! There is one in our new home town of Rio Rancho, New Mexico. So, if we ever stay home, we can attend that. Otherwise, “have lederhosen will travel” will be our slogan in late September and early October.

Wasn’t this about Amana’s Oktoberfest?

Oh, right, I was here to tell you about our Oktoberfest visit in Amana Iowa.

The Amana Oktoberfest takes place in and around the Festhalle, a century-old dairy barn that has been reconstructed as an event center. On one end is a nice stage and dance floor, and on the other is a bar. In between, tables and chairs were arranged Oktoberfest-style; that is to say long tables end-to-end-to-end to form large, community tables for people to eat, drink, and rest their feet between bouts of the the Chicken Dance (just kidding, we didn’t even hear that once) and the schuhplattler. Ask Tony, he’ll show you how it’s done. Better yet, look it up on YouTube so he doesn’t hurt himself.

Outside the Festhalle, a large tent was set up with more tables and chairs, another bar, and a food vendor. We ate lunch there two times. Once we had a pork loin sandwich (meh) and a pretzel larger than our two heads put together! It was massive, and quite delicious! The next day we had a pork chop that was very delicious, with sauerkraut. I drank the Oktoberfest beer, while Tony mixed it up and had a few different offerings. Most of the beers were from Amana’s Millstream Brewery.

On Sunday, we made sure to arrive on time to hear the tuba band from Iowa University. Imagine, a whole concert with just 20 or so tubas! So much fun! They are called Collegium Tubum. Which the conductor said means “group of potatoes” but he was kidding, at least I think so. Haha

The rest of Amana

All the action was not within the Oktoberfest grounds, however. The entire town gears up for the seasonal festivals, including this one. All the stores were bustling with happy festival customers. And Millstream Brewing Company had their own party, with a tent on the lawn, a stage with several bands throughout the weekend, and of course beer and food stations set up.

We found it funny that we could not enter or leave the Oktoberfest grounds with alcohol, but once we gulped our beers and walked through the gate, we encountered a parade of people walking through the streets with steins of beer! We discovered that only the official festival grounds had that rule. So we wandered down to the brewery and filled our steins and continued to explore.

Making friends wherever we go

A great thing about the way tables are set up at Oktoberfest: you almost HAVE to sit with new friends. It’s a very social setting and we chatted with people every time we sat down to eat or rest.

FROGtoberfest

Lest I fail to mention this, we actually were camping with new friends from the Forest River Owner’s Group, or FROG. Each year Will and Lisa organize this campout on the same weekend as Oktoberfest. Though we didn’t collectively participate in the Oktoberfestivities, they did organize dinners together, a corn-hole tournament, a fund-raising raffle, a camper crawl, and (when the wind wan’t out of control) a nightly fire pit.

Next Fest

We are staying right here at the Amana campground for another week, because the upcoming weekend is RV Miles’ Homecoming and we are excited to attend this for our first time. We’ll update on those details in a couple days. For now, I need to get to the laundry room.