Saturday saw several hundred people pack into Wall Street in downtown Asheville for the annual Asheville Oktoberfest, another of Asheville’s great beer festivals. Only in its second year, this event has already become a must-attend for beer lovers, as it features only our locally made brews. That’s in contrast to the other big fall drinking event, Brewgrass, which features breweries from around the Southeast.
I raved about last year’s Oktoberfest. The day was cool and overcast, and the beer flowed smoothly. Throw in the oompah band, a chicken dance, some keg rolling and beer guzzling contests, and you have a good old fashioned beer festival. What I particularly liked last year was that the festival never held out the pretense that most festival-goers were there to somehow sip beer and discuss its finer points. No. Oktoberfest is about beer and fun.
But that’s a fine line to walk, and Saturday’s event verged slightly into territory of one big sloppy frat party. Maybe it was the beer guzzling, or the bratwurst-eating contest. People were awfully grabby from the get-go, and as the afternoon heat bore down, that turned into many a pinch from a crocked faux German with bad lederhosen. Sloshed fest-goers kept adding plastic cups to the stacks in their hands – a sort of badge of honor for big drinkers – and the stumbling, bumping booze-fest verged into dangerous territory. Why weren’t servers cutting more people off?
At the end of the day, the trashed element stumbled away from Wall Street and around downtown, a precursor to the shambling seen Sunday with the Asheville Zombie Walk. While still a minority of fest-goers, there seemed to me to be a greater number of over-served this year compared to last year. That’s dangerous territory for any festival, but especially one that celebrates local beer.
That can be said of any beer festival. There’s always going to be a contingent of people who just come out to pound beers and get a buzz, period. It’s just a matter of watching out for those folks (and helping them watch out for themselves.)
Overall, the Asheville Downtown Association put on a fine party in the heart of downtown. I love the fact that it’s all local, that it is in the heart of downtown and that it celebrates the fun people can have coming together to toss a few back. Here’s hoping that next year, organizers will work a little harder to corral the carousing.
9 Comments
I went to Oktoberfest last year. I've also been to several beerfests during their first and second years. This had the typical second-year addition of those who stacked cups and got a little frisky. Like Jason says, it's a fine line, but I saw no fights or puking — typical "frat party" behavior. I saw lots of people dressed in costumes (some, admittedly, more authentic than others) having a great time and singing to music. When you template is Munch Oktoberfest, you're going to have slutty outfits, dangerous contests, and lots of spillage. I think this was dialed down to an acceptable Asheville size. However, it was difficult to see the games.
Agreed…Frat party perfectly describes the scene by 3:30. Maybe the fine organizers could give folks something to do besides thrown down unlimited full pours. Keg rolling and alpine horn blowing don't really serve as distractions. All that was missing was a wet t shirt contest. Music was authentic but not enough to keep ones attention, more of a novelty act. How about Pack Square Park next year??? Wall St. is to narrow. We won't be back.
Or, you know, maybe the author doesn't speak German.
"Guten himmel" is incorrect on two counts. First of all, Himmel is a noun and must be capitalized. All German nouns are capitalized regardless of the position within a sentence. Secondly, it makes no sense. The author probably meant for this to convey the idea of "Good heavens!" but word for word translation seldom works. The closest expression in German to "good heavens!" might be something like "Du lieber Himmel!" When the headline of the article has such a glaring error, it makes one believe that it was perhaps the author who should have been cut off.
Tickets were $25 and $30 dollars which translates to around 6 or 7 servings to get your moneys worth–in my opinion–that's a lot of beer even for me and I'm a big guy. I guessed there would be people who were trying to get their moneys worth i.e. drink a little too much and $30 dollars is crazy so I didn't go due to the price. It is just a great way to stick it to the tourists. Sorry
As Event Chair for Oktoberfest and the Treasurer of the Asheville Downtown Association, I can assure you that our primary goal is to produce a fun, safe event. We have revived the Oktoberfest tradition on Wall Street and take comments and concerns like this seriously. We want this to be a tradition that all of us are proud to be a part of and will get together to debrief on what can be made better. The good news is that there were several APD officers on site and there were NO incidents either at the event or afterwards. It is true that some people did overindulge, but they were cut-off. All our volunteers are trained using the ALE's BARS program and know when to deny someone service. Again, we will always be cognizant of our duty to produce a safe festival for all involved.
That having been said, we will continue the renewed tradition and will do our best to make this a great event. Thank you for your coverage and recognition.
Just a bunch of rowdy drunks downtown. Not cool in my opinion.
buzzkill
Nice, they let HoBo Transients join in the fun. Is that a prisoner ID number on his forearm or has he been drinking Malt Liquor with Sarah Palin?