Oktoberfest On South Pearl Street

Oktoberfest celebrations began this past Saturday here in Denver, including both the Highlands Oktoberfest and Oktoberfest on South Pearl Street in the Platt Park neighborhood. I attended both festivals last September but only had time to attend one this year. The Highlands Oktoberfest takes place over a 4 or 5-block section of West 32nd Avenue in that popular neighborhood, and is always fun, while Oktoberfest on South Pearl is on a single block, but well attended and very lively. Since South Pearl Street is only a mile or so away from my condo across the street from the University of Denver, I decided to head there, and really enjoyed it. I noticed last year that many of the people attending were wearing traditional costumes, and it was the same this year, too, as seen in the photograph on the left.

Oktoberfest on South Pearl is sponsored by Platt Park Brewing, which is located on that block, and there were over 10 local craft breweries represented there this year. Not surprisingly, that was where the majority of visitors were hanging out. There was also live music, stein hoisting contests throughout the day, brat eating contests, not to mention costume contests, too, which probably explains so many people wearing lederhosen and dirndls. I took the photograph on the right of the men's brat eating contest (there was a women's contest right afterwards). There was quite a crowd surrounding the event, and so I wound up having to stand in the back, hold the camera up high, and hope for the best. Which turned out to work just fine.

My only complaint was that the music, at least when I was there, was all rock and roll, instead of more traditional German melodies. This is also true of the Oktoberfest on Larimer Street in Denver's Ballpark neighborhood, which will take place the next two weekends. The only Oktoberfest that seems to have exclusively traditional German music is Breckenridge Oktoberfest, which takes place this year September 25th through 27th. However, I was happy to see that Oktoberfest on South Pearl did host some traditional German dancing, which was very nice, even if the music they danced to was recorded and not live. All in all, a fun event to attend. With more to come in the next few weeks.