Oktoberfest celebrations coming to Festival Square

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on September 8, 2023.

Herald file photo Revelers with their German beers in hand take part in festivities during last year's Oktoberfest at Festival Square.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

It’s time to don the dirndl and lederhosen once again while shouting loudly “oans, zwoa, drei, g’suffa!”

Yes, Oktoberfest is back courtesy of the Pogo Bros.

The festival of beer, bratwurst, pretzels and oompa music runs downtown in Festival Square today and Saturday from 3 until 11 p.m.

Advance tickets are $15 at eventbrite.ca or $20 in person.

This is the ninth year the Pogo Bros. – Roy and Johnny along with Jerry and Devon Firth – have staged popular Bavarian celebration in Lethbridge.

While we are only in September, the organizers chose this month to avoid potential inclement weather that can – and have – put a damper on festivities because after all, nobody really likes to do brats and beers in the snow or rain. Or at least not many, presumably.

With the forecast calling for partly sunny skies with highs in the low 20s today and tomorrow, the Pogo Bros. don’t have to worry about Mother Nature spoiling the fun as crowds hoist their mugs and shout “Prost!” throughout the festivities.

For Oktoberfest fans and connoisseurs of premium German brews, the Pogo Bros. have created a festival that will be the toast of the town this weekend.

In an interview Thursday, Roy Pogo said a band from Medicine Hat called Alpen Schatz will be providing the musical entertainment starting at 5:30 p.m. but guests can also expect special Oktoberfest games and a yodelling competition. And there is a competition for best dressed, as well.

There will also be a chicken dance happening in Festival Square where people will be allowed, Pogo points out, to bring their own munchies if they so desire.

A lot of work goes into staging Oktoberfest, says Pogo. And for the second straight year it returns to the site where it all started nine years ago before Festival Square underwent its transformation.

One reason organizers returned to the square is to help the Downtown Business Revitalization Zone attract people to the core, said Pogo.

“There’s no better area than downtown,” said Pogo, who calls the area the core of the city.

The Pogo brothers are German on their father’s side and have dual citizenship so Oktoberfest was perhaps a natural fit for them.

“I went to Oktoberfest in Munich in 2009 and my brother was working at the ethnic association at the time and we just kind of had a conversation and said ‘one thing we know really well is Oktoberfest. It’s something in our wheelhouse that we can give it a go and see how it goes,'” Pogo said.

The beer garden will feature two premium German beers plus Pogo Bros.’ own special Oktoberfest brand which comes from a well-known Alberta supplier and is the event’s affordable option. And for those who want an extra kick, there will also be Jagermeister shots available. German wines will be available, as well.

Brats and pretzels, of course, will be available to help keep imbibers from turning into “die biereichen,” or beer corpses, as they celebrate.

The first year they ran Oktoberfest they were nervous about how it would turn out, he recalled.

“I remember the first year we were nervous if anybody would show up. Even at that time, there weren’t a lot of festivals and certainly not on what is now Festival Square. We did it, we tried it out and we had a lineup actually at the event. And we knew right there that there was interest in these types of cultural events,” said Pogo.

“We’ve had exceptional years, we’ve had tough years like during COVID, we also had a difficult times when Mother Nature wouldn’t cooperate and we were outside years ago,” he said.

October is a major gamble so organizers moved the event to September in hopes of catching “some of this beautiful early September sun,” Pogo said.

In the fourth year of the festival, rain and snow hit Oktoberfest and organizers watched all their customers walk out the doors at Galt Gardens.

“We moved it inside to the Exhibition but of course, the Exhibition then was undergoing its own renos and Festival Square had its own new renovations so we thought to ourselves ‘our first ever one nine years ago was on Festival Square.’ We’re so excited about the downtown space. We love to see the community come together in a really fun way, to listen to music, to celebrate, just have that community togetherness. And there’s no better area than the downtown for that.”

Pogo said the city is growing in diversity so Oktoberfest offers a “multicultural and plural environment where people from all different backgrounds, cultures and ways of life can come together and celebrate. And just have a good time.”

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