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player ready...For Montgomery resident Jared Mosher, the Oktoberfest celebration in Aurora on Saturday was a perfect fit.
“I found about this by checking out nearby Oktoberfest events online and this was the biggest event that came up for this weekend,” he said. “If there’s one of these in the area I’m at it every year.”
Beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday, the second annual Auroraland Oktoberfest was held inside the main pavilion of Phillips Park in Aurora. The fest was offered by the Auroraland German Heritage Society and the Kiwanis Club of Aurora.
Originally planned for Sept. 19, predicted heavy rainfall forced organizers to reschedule the event to Saturday.
Saturday’s festivities included traditional music, food and contests as well as a family and kids’ area that included pumpkin painting and various games.
Aurora’s Wurst Kitchen provided bratwurst and other food at the event, which also featured various traditional and local craft beers.
Chair of the event Mark Strausberger of Montgomery said this was the second year that the Auroraland German Society was offering the fest at Phillips Park.
“We felt we needed this because there are lot of people in Aurora of German heritage, especially on the East Side,” he said.
Bill Donnell of Aurora spoke about the newly-formed Phillips Park Foundation which was on hand at the event to accept donations for its first-ever Adopt an Animal campaign, designed to help the Phillips Park Zoo acquire two African crested porcupines.
“Our mission is that Phillips Park is the biggest park in Aurora and parts of it are beautiful and wonderful and parts of it, frankly, need some help,” Donnell said of the foundation’s goals. “We’re going to try and help and especially now we are focusing on the zoo which has been free forever and very popular and we are trying to enhance it.”
Sunny weather greeted visitors to this year’s Oktoberfest in Aurora including Mosher and his friend Zach Shimkus of Aurora, who said he attends some sort of Oktoberfest yearly.
“You can go to a German restaurant and get all the pork schnitzel and potato pancakes and all that but here it’s the basics – the beer, the brats, the pretzels,” he said. “I feel when it comes to a restaurant, you can do that all year long whereas here, this is special because it’s specific. It’s going to be a bunch of people who come together and enjoy together. I think community is the biggest factor.”
Ellen Patzer from the Bloomington-Normal area brought her own German outfit with her to the fest.
“This is authentic, German attire,” she said while munching a pretzel.
She said the appeal of Oktoberfest celebrations like the one in Aurora is simple.
“Who doesn’t want to drink beer and listen to German music?,” she said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.