NEWBERRY — Many changes have been made to improve the overall experience of this year’s Oktoberfest, according to Mary Alex Kopp, tourism and events coordinator for the city of Newberry.
Oktoberfest will be held on Saturday, October 3 in downtown Newberry.
This year’s hours of the festival have been extended by one hour and are now from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., Kopp said.
Traditionally Oktoberfest has been viewed as more of a lunch event, Kopp said where people would go shopping, listen to music and then go home. With the extended time, Kopp said they were hoping the event would attract some for an early dinner.
“We’re ending it at 6 p.m. because the sun is pretty much down by 7:30 this time of year,” Kopp said.
City staff and volunteers will begin setting up for Saturday’s festivities at 4 a.m. that morning. Kopp said folks needed to have their cars out of the downtown area by midnight the night before. For cars that are left, Kopp said the police department would do their best job to find their owners.
Main Street will be closed Saturday starting at 4 a.m. The courthouse parking lot will also be closed. Due to a car show in the parking lot on the corner of Harrington and McKibben, that area will also be closed. Kopp said the parking lot being used was the one with the Coca-Cola mural.
“Vendors will start arriving at 7 a.m.,” Kopp said.
Starting at 10 a.m., the Rocktoberfest stage next to Memorial Park will be filled with local acts and a variety of shows.
D.C. Danceworks will have dancers perform first, followed by the 3 Dot Polka Band at 10:45 a.m. Kopp said the band will be performing lots of traditional German tunes also bringing in some of their humor to the act.
Kopp said they encourage the community to bring chairs and set up to listen to the performances. Because it will be in the street, blankets are discouraged.
The Rocktoberfest stage was moved to the corner of Main and Nance Streets this year, Kopp said in order for music to travel up toward the festival, rather than away from it. Kopp said in the past, patrons could not really hear the music until they got past the old Courthouse and they thought by flipping it around, people could enjoy the entertainment while they were shopping or getting food.
A best “German” costume contest is set to begin at 12:15 p.m. Saturday. The contest was started last year, Kopp said in an effort to get the community excited and to be festive for the day. Kopp said an announcement will be made for those to come on stage.
The emcee will look out asking the audience to vote with applause for the winning outfit. Winners will receive an Oktoberfest prize pack, Kopp said.
At 12:30 p.m., Jack Roper and the Weatherman Band will perform, followed by the Swingin’ Medallions at 2 p.m. At 4 p.m., Grand Illusion will perform and close the event out until 6 p.m.
Food, drinks
The Bier Garten will be back at this year’s event with a new location in Memorial Park. There, patrons will find German beer along with a few Kraft breweries from the South Carolina area. Kopp said Bud Light will also be served in the area. Those with an over 21 wristband can walk anywhere with the drinks in the designated area.
Also in Memorial Park, the city will be selling t-shirts for Oktoberfest underneath a red tent. The shirts will include the Oktoberfest logo and will be $5 for short sleeves and $8 for long sleeves.
The food court will surround Community Hall on Saturday with 15 different food vendors. Kopp said the variety is very wide including barbecue, gourmet food and German dishes.
“There are more food vendors than last year,” Kopp said. “Last year we know we had some issues with long lines so we were trying to avoid that this year.”
Each vendor is required to have at least one authentically German dish. While there are local vendors from Newberry County, Kopp said there will also be some traveling for the event.
Near the food court on Boyce St., the Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile will also be coming back for the event.
The liver nips contest will be in front of Community Hall at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Registration for participants has already began, Kopp said. To register, contact the Newberry County Chamber of Commerce.
Shopping
Along Main St., visitors will find 30 arts and crafts vendors during the event that will be selling a variety of items, Kopp said. Items include homemade soaps, candles, up-cycled art and jewelry, home decor, hand-quilted bags and more.
A unique vendor this year, Kopp said was a gentleman who has dubbed himself a foot artist. Travis Cunningham, she said draws with his feet due to a disability that has left him without arms.
New to Oktoberfest this year along Boyce Street will be the Artist’s Walk. In this section, Kopp said people will find arts and crafts items that lean more towards the fine arts. Items include handmade guitars, sweet grass baskets, pottery and more.
The Newberry Community Players will be bringing back puppet shows to the Ritz Theater this year done by the Columbia Marionette Theater. The show will be Anansi the Spider and will run at 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. free to the public.
On the upper end of Main St., past the Ritz theater will house the Community Corner to highlight local non-profit organizations, churches and health/wellness groups.
Kopp said they would be doing fundraisers, handing out information and having bake sales. There will also be pet adoptions in that area, she said.
Fun for Kids
Kindertown, similar to last year will be in the parking lot of the courthouse. “Kinder,” which is German for child will house the area for children including inflatables, a video game truck and other activities.
Lowe’s will be back in the area again, Kopp said with their craft-tent and there will also be face-painting and a small farmer’s market. Crafters will be in Kindertown selling novelty children’s items.
“The whole idea is while kids are playing, parents can do a little shopping and maybe buy some Christmas gifts when the kids aren’t paying attention,” Kopp said. “It seemed to work really well last year.”
Kindertown is sponsored by the Newberry County Memorial Hospital again this year, Kopp said and they will be there with their KidFit program with activities including a jump-rope and hula hoop competition.
Kopp said she estimated the streets would be back open at around 8 p.m. Saturday night. Parking for the event can be found on Harrington and McKibben Streets, at the Newberry County Library and some of the county parking lots near their offices.
The parking lots on Friend Street will also be open. Kopp said they highly encouraged carpooling to save on parking spaces.
Last year’s Oktoberfest event brought forward approximately 20,000 people, Kopp said which was the most they had ever seen.
“We’re hoping for record numbers again this year and have been preparing more for it,” Kopp said.
For more information visit newberryoktoberfest.com or contact the city of Newberry’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism office at 803-321-1015.