After nine days of food, festhallen and fun, the 46th Oktoberfest held closing ceremonies on Saturday night. The ceremonial keg was sealed at Chicopee Haus.
While Oktoberfest officials have not release any numbers yet, they say numbers are on par with last year.
“We have some reports from some festahallens that they are up a little bit, and others are just down a little bit so I think when we do the calculation and the mix we are pretty much where we were last year,” said Harry Vogt, president of K-W Oktoberfest.
There were multiple events over the course of Oktoberfest, including the Miss Oktoberfest Gala Ball, Rocktoberfest with The Trews and Walter Ostanek, and the K-W Oktoberfest Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Onkel Hans Food Drive raised over ten thousand pounds of food, and $11,500 in cash for the Food Bank of Waterloo Region.
It was a relatively problem free Oktoberfest for police as well.
“I spoke with our police chief Bryan Larkin and so far, knock on wood, no major incidents, no impaired driving charges, so we’re very pleased that the festival is very safe this year. People are taking to heart our GRT take a bus on us program and behaving well,” Vogt said.
Next year’s Oktoberfest gets underway on October 9th.
