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Oktoberfest brings community together
Christina Rowland/ Staff Writer
Southlake’s 7th annual Oktoberfest will hit Town Square Oct.3-5. The event offers opportunity for the community to come together for music, arts and crafts, kid’s activities and no festival would be complete without the food.
“It is a lot of fun and it’s something the community rallies around,” said Southlake Chamber of Commerce President Giovanna Phillips.
Other changes to this year’s event will include the elimination of the bratwurst eating contest and the addition of a cost to access the children’s area. The cost to the children’s area will cover the fee for doubling the size of the area and will be six dollars for an all-day wrist band.
Oktoberfest will also have the traditional arts and craft booths that it has offered in previous years. The booths will have jewelry, accessories, children’s items, art, pottery, custom signs and a variety of other things.
According to Phillips, they get a lot of returning vendors although this year the chamber doesn’t have as many vendors signed up.
“We have a 50 percent return ratio,” Phillips said.
Another big draw to the event is the wiener dog races. People bring their dogs from across North Texas to be part of the event.
“I have no doubt that we will have more than 100 dogs this year,” Phillips said.
The registration for the dogs can be done online at the chamber website or the day of the event at 10 a.m. The race is scheduled to start Saturday at 11 a.m.
There will also be top entertainment from across the D/FW area that will be performing during the event
In the beginning, Phillips explained that they tried not to duplicate acts two years in a row, or have similar bands, but through experience she has learned that is what people like. This year’s headliners will include Le Freak, Emerald City and Me and My Monkey all of which have made appearances at the festival in previous years. Every musical genre is covered with the bands scheduled to play.
The event began seven years ago when the chamber realized that there was nothing going on this time of year in Southlake. There is Art in the Square in the spring and an event in December but there is nothing going on in the fall.
“When picking something the sky was the limit and Former Mayor Stacy pushed for Oktoberfest,” Phillips said. “It’s a lot of work but it’s a lot of fun.”
The revenue from the event goes to the Chamber of Commerce as non-dues revenue and goes into their operating budget. Phillips hopes to produce $70,000 from the event this year that will go toward programs to help businesses in the community.
“If this weren’t extremely successful for Southlake, we wouldn’t do it,” Philips said.
Oktoberfest starts Friday at 5 p.m. and continues for the week. There is free parking and festival admission. For information and the entertainment lineup visit www.southlakechamber.org
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