AZ-Central News
Geri Koeppel
Special for The Republic
Oct. 4, 2007 12:00 AM
From apfelstrudel to Warsteiner beer, Phoenix Oktoberfest promises an authentic German experience. The festival is Oct. 13 at Margaret T. Hance Park. This is the second year for the festival, which is a fundraiser for the Arizona Center for Germanic Cultures, a non-profit group representing people of Germanic roots. This is part of its capital campaign to build a cultural center.
Unlike other Oktoberfests around the Valley, this one is patterned after the world's largest and first fest, which began in 1810 in Munich as a marriage celebration for Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. It's more family-oriented and will include German music from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
"Our newest group is the Fountain Hills High School band's Polka Dots," Oktoberfest coordinator Christine Colley said. "They play exclusively polka music. Is that awesome or what?"
Guggenbach-Buam, a band from Germany, also will play, and Dank Funken, a local youth dance troupe, will perform. Three of the Guggenbach-Buam members will play Swiss alphorns, the giant horns featured in advertisements for Ricola throat drops.
Adults and children can enter an alphorn-blowing contest, too.
"It's surprisingly difficult," Colley said.
Other attractions will include a climbing wall and bounce castle for kids, a raffle for two Lufthansa airline tickets and giveaways from sponsor Dial Corp. and its parent company, Henkel.
German foods such as bratwurst and schweinshaxe, or pork shank - famous at the world-renowned Hofbrauhaus in Munich - will be sold, all cooked by German chefs from Der Kaffeekuchen in Peoria.
Those who think they know the ways of Bavaria can enter the sauerkraut contest. The trick, Colley advised, is in "the combination of the secret ingredients - the addition of onions and bacon and peppercorns and juniper berries, that makes sauerkraut what sauerkraut is supposed to be."
If you start with the packaged stuff, she said, "you need to rinse it before you heat it."
The Oktoberfest last year attracted about 2,500, Colley said. One was Michael Phillips of Avondale, who moved to the U.S. in 1986 from Bonn, Germany, and said last year's Phoenix Oktoberfest was the first he attended in this country.
"I think it was authentic to what the one in Germany is, but on a much smaller scale," he said. "People were very nice. Great food; the smell was all over. As soon as you walked in, your mouth started to water."
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