Oktoberfest at the Turn Verien

This is the 45^th annual Octoberfest to be hosted in East Sac’s Turn Verien. Come out on Friday October 12^th from 6:00 to 11:00 or Saturday October 13^th from 3:00 to 11:00 for traditional German food, beer and dancing.

They will also have the traditional German band, the Gruber Family Band in the Main Hall, with the rock-& roll band AKA LIVE upstairs. The Alpentänzer Schuhplattler will perform colorful traditional German dances during the evening. The Turn Verein’s Kaffeehaus and outdoor Biergarten will be open throughout the evening, offering German food specialties and beer from Munich.

How did this wonderful tradition start, you may be asking yourself. The Turn Verien has these details on their site:

“Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) of Bavaria (the grandfather of “Mad” Ludwig II) started it when he threw a wedding party on the occasion of his marriage to Princess Theresia of Saxony-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810.

Ludwig gave an open invitation to the people of Munich, and about 40,000 of them came. The Prince set up tents in a field on the outskirts of Munich, later called ‘Theresienwiese’ (Theresa’s meadow) in honor of his lady. To entertain the crowd he organized a horse race and supplied copious amounts of beer. Everyone had such a good time that they decided to hold the horse race (and beer drinking) again the next year, but this time in conjunction with the state agricultural show. The rest, as they say, is history. The local brewers realized that they could sell a lot of beer in a very short time, the reason why it has become a 16-day extravaganza ending the first Sunday in October.”