On Sept. 16, the annual Oktoberfest celebration was held in the brewery district at Tioga Sequoia Brewing Company and Full Circle Brewing Company in the heart of Downtown Fresno.
Oktoberfest is a huge beer festival originally held in Munich, Germany, every year. The event started in 1810 as a wedding celebration for the marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese.
The event had food trucks, vendor booths, live music, contests and games for attendees.
Those celebrating Oktoberfest embraced the German cultural festival by dressing up in traditional German garments like dirndls, lederhosen and kilts.
Full Circle held events such as a yodeling competition, a Steinholding challenge (which is a challenge of determining one’s strength by holding a liter of beer in front of them), a pretzel eating contest and a limbo contest.
The live band also participated in festivities by dressing in full lederhosen and playing ethnic German music on instruments such as the banjo, tuba and accordion.
Tioga-Sequoia allowed those in attendance to have fun and play a game of cornhole. Tioga also featured live music along with their Steinholding competition.
The vendors at the event said that they look forward to Oktoberfest every year because of the crowd it brings and the fun associated with the festival.
“Oktoberfest is always a fun event. There’s lots of people that come down all throughout the day. It’s interesting to be here from beginning to end to see how it kind of transitions throughout the day. So that’s kind of fun,” said Angela Johnson, owner of Mimi Made It.
Johnson’s store specializes in handmade items like crayons shaped like Baby Yoda and building blocks.
Gustavo Guirrez, the owner of Tacos Las Salsas, worked his family-owned taco truck at Oktoberfest.
“We work with Fresno Street Eats, and it’s through them that we came here…We thought it was going to be a really good event, ” he said.
Many artists were also in attendance. Filmmakers, photographers and artists were all capturing the fun activities happening at the event in real-time.
Michael Diele, a multimedia specialist for Central Valley Podcast, was one of the artists in attendance.
“I got linked up with Tioga-Sequoia in Merced because that’s where I’m from, and they wanted me to shoot the event out here. So I’m doing videography for the event. It’s pretty cool. I enjoy it. I like the vibe, and I just know it’s gonna bring more and more people,” Diele said.
