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The Poconos’ Wurst Festival is back — better than ever — this weekend at Shawnee Mountain Ski Area to celebrate the German and Polish communities of the area.

“Oktoberfest had its roots as an early 19th-century festival to celebrate the royal German family. Now in the modern age, Oktoberfest is a celebration of Bavarian culture, and Shawnee Mountain commemorates this with a festival. This will be celebrated with ethnic food, music and of course beer,” said Kevin Furst, social media manager and design coordinator for the ski area.

This year, there will be more wursts, wieners, kielbasa, pierogies and brews. With both Polish and German themes, the event will feature three stages of music, traditional costumed dance performances, pig and hot dog races, ethnic craft vendors and, for the second year, the Bier Stein Olympics.

IF YOU GO

Poconos’ Wurst Festival

When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: Shawnee Mountain Ski Area, 401 Hollow Road, Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pa.

Cost: One day, adults, $15; children 5-12, $12; and children 4 and under, free. Two day, adults $24; children 5-12, $24; and children 5 and under, free. Advance tickets available.

Information: shawneemt.com or 570-421-7231

“This event is a crowd favorite with the Liter Stein Bucket Race and the Stein Hoisting competition. The Liter Stein Bucket Race will put teams head to head in a water relay where each player will fill the next player’s stein until they overflow the bucket at the end,” Furst said. “The Stein Hoisting is simple but tough. The game is simple, how long can you hold two, one-liter steins filled to the brim with water with arms locked, straight out in front of you? The last person’s arm to drop below 90 degrees or spill the water in the steins, wins.”

The H.S.V. Bavarian Dancers will entertain audiences with precision dance steps, traditional costumes and energetic performances throughout the day.

This non-profit organization is dedicated to the preservation of Bavarian/Tyrolian folk dance, Tracht (traditional costumes), tradition, culture and to promote mutual fellowship, said Karen Grether, president, business manager and lead female dancer.

The dance group was founded in 1966 and has performed throughout the United States as well as in Puerto Rico, Germany and Austria.

This will be the third year that the group will be performing at the festival. This year they will be performing on both Saturday and Sunday.

“Schuhplattler dancing is unique to the mountainous southern part of Germany in Bavaria and the Tyrolean area of Austria. It is a spirited and flirtatious dance, which can be traced back a thousand years in Bavaria and is believed to be derived from several dances evolved over many generations. It can be performed by several couples, one couple or even one male dancer. The root and origin of the Schuhplattler is taken from the mating ritual of the male Alpine Auerhahn or Spielhahn bird, which is of a black color and related to the grouse,” Grether said.

Grether enjoys interacting with the people who attend and is looking forward to returning this year and seeing familiar faces as well as new ones.

The traditional music lineup for the weekend includes The Chardon Polka Band, The Austrian Boys, One Man Polka Band, Eddie Derwin and the Polka Naturals and The Apple Strudel Gang.

The Apple Strudel Gang is an authentic German band with a bit of the American Songbook thrown in. Mark Hamza said this will be the first year they will be performing at the festival.

According to Hamza, German music is folk music of the Germanic, Slavic and Polish tribes. “Polka is a subset of this folk music where each tribe has a slightly different interpretation of the style. Estonian polkas tend to be very fast, Polish polkas are somewhat slower and German polkas somewhere in between. Klezmer music comes from the Jewish tribes from the same area. It might be said that Klezmer music contains polkas in a minor key.”