It’s a wonderful reason to consume lots of excellent beer and hearty foods: Oktoberfest, that raucous festival observed in Munich, Germany, in the heart of Bavaria, since October 1810 when citizens gathered in the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.
A mere 203 years later, below the towering San Francisco Peaks, which are not unlike the snow-tipped mountains of Bavaria, folks here still honor this fun tradition that originally ran for 16 days in Germany, from late September to the first weekend in October.
In Germany, the fair is one of the largest in the world, in recent years attracting more than 6 million people yearly from around the world to “die Wiesn,” the nickname locals prefer for Theresa’s meadow, or Theresienwiese.
Organizers at the Lumberyard Brewing Co. south of the tracks in Flagstaff aren’t expecting millions of attendees at the fourth annual Okto’beer’fest event on Saturday, but they are hoping to top last year’s attendance, which was around 250.
Bringing in more people to the Oktoberfest event, and their $5 entrance fees and beer and food purchases, is especially important as all proceeds will benefit Second Chance Center for Animals, an animal adoption and training facility on the east side of town.
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“We want to double it, just to raise money for Second Chance,” says Winnie Hanseth, who co-owns the Lumberyard with her husband Evan.
Her parents, Richard (Dick) and Jean Wilson, started Second Chance in 2004.
“A couple thousand dollars more than last year would be nice—$10,000 would be great!” Winnie adds.
The Wilsons had a passion for the proper care and treatment of animals in northern Arizona, including the many abandoned dogs on the Navajo Reservation. They started the Plateauland Mobile Veterinary Clinic to travel the northern part of the state spaying. The philanthropists were also instrumental in saving Hart Prairie from commercial development, helping orphaned children in Korea during the Korean Conflict, providing land for Embry Riddle University in Prescott, and founding Camp Colton here and Tohono Chul Park in Tucson.
Dick Wilson was the nephew of Harold Colton, the founder of the Museum of Northern Arizona.
“They inherited a lot of money, family money, and they felt they needed to help people,” Winnie says. “They put a lot of kids through college. They’d bring Christmas gifts to the kids out there at the Gap. It was just what you did. We did Plateauland and helped out on the Rez. We didn’t have a clue how much they did.”
The Hanseths moved to Flagstaff from Southern California in 1994, when their two daughters, Korie and Kelly, were little. Today, Kelly works as a manager at the Lumberyard and remembers the good works of her grandparents.
“They were good role models, too, and we want to follow in their footsteps,” she observes.
After moving to town, the Hanseths started a new venture, the Beaver Street Brewery.
Sixteen years later, they started the Lumberyard, or the Yard, after restoring one of the last remaining buildings from the lumber era in Flagstaff. The pairing of brewing with restaurant, in the brew-pub way, has been a successful business model for the family.
The Okto’beer’fest event at their second enterprise will feature a number of Oktoberfest-inspired games, including a bratwurst-eating contest, Bavarian costume contest and a very Flag-style event where folks do the Chicken Dance, flapping their arms and clapping to the polka rhythms of that repetitious tune.
“It gets quicker and quicker as the song goes,” Kelly says.
Her mother has been researching traditional Oktoberfest contests and thinks there may be a beer-carrying event, with contestants holding multiple steins, without spilling any beer.
The two women say there will be three times as many breweries participating as last year, and all from northern Arizona, with the farthest south being craft beer from Prescott.
Participating breweries include Flagstaff Brewing Co., That Brewery (Pinetop), Mudshark, Grand Canyon, Beaver Street, Prescott, Mother Road, Oak Creek, Granite Mountain, Historic, Wanderlust and Lumberyard.
Lumberyard beers on tap will include its Pilsner, IPA, Red Ale, the German-style wheat beer, Hefeweizen, and the special Marzen, a malty Oktoberfest beer, which is darker than the Red Ale. A taste of beer will be $1, a pint, $4 and a stein, $5.
Attendees must be 21 years of age or older. There will be no transporting of beer allowed from the Oktoberfest venue to the patio and restaurant at the Lumberyard. The G-Lodge, a mobile German food truck, will be selling brats several ways, schnitzel, pork steak and other Oktoberfest favorites, with menu items ranging from about $6 to $8.
The Okto’beer’fest event is Sat, Sept. 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Lumberyard Brewing Co. work yard, 5S. San Francisco. The entry donation is $5. There will be beer, food, music and games, with beer provided by northern Arizona breweries. Call the Yard for details at 779-2739. All proceeds go to Second Chance Center for Animals. For more information about Second Chance, located at 11665 US Highway 89N, call 526-5964.
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