Saturday’s weather provided a sunny backdrop for visitors to North Aurora like Margaret Smith of Westchester looking to enjoy an age-old German tradition.
“This is the first I heard of this. I found out about it from my daughter,” Smith said as she walked toward some food trucks that sat inside Riverfront Park during the second annual North Aurora Oktoberfest celebration. “I know that Oktoberfest is celebrated all over the world and people love the music, the food. People are always happy.”
The 10-hour event, organized by the village of North Aurora, included craft brews, live polka music, a pretzel scavenger hunt and more.
A total of four breweries including two new ones this year were on hand. Seven food vendors were featured this time serving up traditional favorites and more.
One of those vendors was Chris Nowicki of South Elgin, owner of the Bartlett-based The Polish Shack who said he was at the North Aurora event last year and had the good fortune “of selling out of everything we had, including things we don’t even make.”
Live music from Sgt. Sauerkraut’s Polka Band helped kick things off at the Oktoberfest celebration over the weekend.
Contests this year at the fest included the popular stein-holding competition and an expanded dachshund race.
Natalie Stevens, community relations coordinator for the village of North Aurora, said little was changed this year as things went very well during the inaugural celebration last year, saying that the dachshund race was so popular it was “decided to expand on that so we’re having a dachshund costume contest.”
“We’re expecting a lot of cute costumes and have over 30 dogs entered in the costume contest as well as 40 that are racing so we’re going to have different heats,” she said before the event. “I think it’s just going to be a cute afternoon with all the dogs.”
Stein-holding, she said, “was our most popular event for the 21-and-older crowd that participated” adding that this year, the fest included “multiple versions of that going on with more people and more prizes.”
A scavenger hunt also returned this year where pretzels made of foam were hidden within the park.
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“If people find one, you bring it back to our village tent and we have all different types of pretzels we’re giving away,” Stevens said.
Margaret Smith’s daughter Eileen Smith of Batavia said she remembered “having Oktoberfest events in Lombard where we used to live but they stopped doing that.”
“We wanted to find a new place and I finally saw this in the paper and here we are,” she said. “As far as what I’m looking forward to, I’d like to check out the pretzels and I hear there is going to be a wiener dog race – with all the costumes, it’s cute. People like all of this because we’re social beings and we like to share things with others. It’s fun.”
Lindsay Boynton of Lisle came with her family members to the North Aurora Oktoberfest and said some of them “were looking for beer and also the dachshunds.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.