Richmond Oktoberfest Experience best in Virginia

The festival took place at the Old Dominion Building, Richmond International Raceway Complex, 600 East Laburnum Avenue, Friday, October 19, 6:00 – midnight, Saturday, October 20, 3:00 – midnight.

After experiencing many beer festivals in Northern Virginia, I finally had the opportunity to attend the 50th Annual Richmond Oktoberfest, the oldest and most authentic Oktoberfest celebration in Virginia. The entire Old Dominion building exhibition hall is decorated in traditional German flare. The Hall is hung with banners and flags and chock-full of long running tables and small cocktail tables, where one can sit or stand, drink beer, eat a meal and be close to the music. The tables are communal and everyone is there to toast, smile, sing-along, make friends and have fun.

The festival is modeled after Munich’s world famous Oktoberfest and is very similar to a real local or regional folk fest in Germany.

Friday evening begins with the Grand March and features men and women in colorful authentic German costumes, the singing of the National Anthems by the Gesangverein Männerchor, the introduction of honored guests and most important, the crowning of the Oktoberfest Queen.

The Richmond Oktoberfest combines a great party environment like no other beer fest in Virginia. There is the opportunity to eat authentic German food and drink a variety of German and domestic beers and wines. There are roast pork, broiled chicken and sausage (brat, knack and weiss) dinners offered with sauerkraut, red cabbage, and tasty German bread and potato salad. The sausages are from Usingers in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

The snack bar offers potato pancakes with applesauce, baked almonds, Landjager, a smoked sausage and pretzels filled with cheese or Jalapenos. Reinecker's Bakery located in Macedonia, Ohio offers a large selection of freshly baked cakes, pastry, and cookies, as well as the famous Bavarian “Lebkuchen Hearts.” These are large German cookies shaped like hearts with love messages inscribed on each item. The bakery also has a large selection of freshly baked German bread.

Warsteiner is the main beer served and is imported from Warstein, Germany. Several drafts are offered; Premium Verum (Pilsner), a Dunkel and an Oktoberfest along with Konig Ludwig Weissbier (a yeasty wheat) brewed by the Konig Ludwig Brewery in Furstenfeldbruck, Germany. Traditional Oktoberfest beers can be described as being amber to reddish in color with a toasty malt character and low to medium hop character. Oktoberfest beers are permitted to age over the summer months. Allowing the beer to age for the full season gives the Oktoberfest a very malty flavor, a sweeter, better-rounded body and also a higher alcohol content.

Bavarian and Tirolean folk dancing is performed by the Hirschjäger Bavarian Dancers. This dance group performs hearty shoe slapping, courtship and wedding dances and provides the best in German and Austrian entertainment.

Everyone can get out on the large dance floor and boogie to polkas, waltzes, and American standards by "Die Lustigen Almdudler" from Rochester, New York, “The Continentals” from Washington, D.C. and the local band, the “Sauerkrauts.” All enjoy the chance to participate in the much loved German beer-drinking sing-alongs. Both nights conclude with the men’s and ladies’ stein hoisting contests. The champions win the coveted three liter imported beer stein.

After 50 years, the Oktoberfest of Richmond has grown from the 500 attendees in 1969 to around 4,500 people over the Friday and Saturday event. The first Oktoberfest of Richmond was held at the old Holiday Inn (The Abbey) on Robin Hood Road. Over the years, the festival was relocated several times until 2013 when the Board of Directors found the perfect location. The Old Dominion Building had been the State Fair’s cattle barn. It was built in 1943 and was designed by William Lawrence Bottomley, the well-known architect who designed many of the most impressive Colonial Revival homes on Richmond’s Monument Avenue. A large brick structure on the Register of Historic Landmarks, it had sloping ceilings on four sides, surrounding an elevated roof in the center, which was over a 63 by 100 foot cattle judging area. Upon entering the building, the Board was immediately struck by similarity to the interior of a beer tent at the Munich Oktoberfest and the suitability of the building for the Richmond Oktoberfest. As a result, the Old Dominion Building became the new home of the Richmond Oktoberfest with the cattle judging area becoming the Oktoberfest’s dance floor.

The Richmond Oktoberfest has modernized over 50 years, however it has maintained an authentic German fest atmosphere. What makes it authentic is the proper mix of German food, good German beer and excellent German entertainment and of course great beer loving people. Lastly, for souvenir aficionados, one should peruse the Oktoberfest market kiosks for authentic German crafts, clothing, keepsakes and even imported steins! I lived in Bavaria, Germany for two years and can attest that the Richmond Oktoberfest is the next best thing to actually being in Munich.

Origin of the Oktoberfest

The first Oktoberfest took place on October 12, 1810 in Munich, Germany to celebrate the marriage of Bavaria’s Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese Charlotte Luise of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Ludwig would become King Ludwig I of Bavaria, reigning from 1825 – 1848.

The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the royal event. Horse races in the presence of the royal family marked the close of the event that was celebrated as a festival for the whole of Bavaria. The decision to repeat the horse races in subsequent years gave rise to the tradition of Oktoberfest.

In 1811, an added feature to the horse races was the first Agricultural Show, designed to boost Bavarian agriculture. Through the first few decades, the choices of amusements were sparse. In 1818, the first carousel and two swings were set up. Visitors were able to quench their thirst at small beer stands, which grew rapidly in number. In 1896, the beer stands were replaced by the first beer tents and halls set up by the enterprising landlords with the backing of the breweries. The remainder of the festival site was taken up by an ever expanding exposition. The range of carousels offered was already increasing rapidly in the 1870's as the fairground trade continued to grow and develop in Germany. In 1908 Carl Gabriel presented Germany’s first roller coaster, followed by Max Stehbeck the next year with the Oktoberfest’s first “Figure-8-Amusement Ride.”

The most visitors attended (7.1 million) the 1985 Oktoberfest. The beer consuming record occurred in 2011 when people drank 7.5 million liters! The Oktoberfest celebrated its 200th Anniversary in 2010. Oktoberfest has only been cancelled 24 times. The causes were mostly due to the Great War and cholera epidemics. Today, the Oktoberfest in Munich is the largest festival in the world, with an international flavor reflecting the 21st century experience.

More about Wurst

Knackwurst also spelled knockwurst, are short, thick sausages made of finely ground pork, flavored with plenty of garlic. The name comes from the German “knacken,” which means “to crack.”

Weisswurst - Bavarian white sausages are pale beige-colored links made mainly from veal, with a little pork and pork skin added in. They’re milder in flavor, and spiced less than other varieties. Weisswurst is traditionally simmered in hot water rather than grilled and served with pretzels and sweet German whole-grain mustard.

Brockwurst is made with a mixture of ground veal and pork, with the addition of cream and eggs. It’s flavored with mild parsley as opposed to the stronger herbal flavors of marjoram and thyme that season other kinds of sausage.

Landjager is like jerky and predecessor to the modern Slim Jim. It is made with pork and beef and seasoned with red wine, sugar, caraway seeds, mustard and white pepper. No mechanically separated protein here — all the work must be done by hand to ensure the proper texture and shape.