PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN RICE
WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN OCTOBER
October
07
GO: Friday, October 7, from 5–11 pm. Saturday, October 8, from 11 am–11 pm. Crown Center. $10 general admission. kcoktoberfest.com.
HERE’S THE SPIEL
You won’t go thirsty at Kansas City Bier Company’s annual Oktoberfest, which returns to Crown Center on October 7 and 8. Among the offerings are traditional lagers in the style of Munich and Vienna, plus a Hef, an IPL and even a cider. They’re poured by the plastic stein to a crowd of ten thousand-plus people who gather under big white tents. As always, there will be polka aplenty, with a half-dozen oom-pah acts performing during the event. But beer and brass bands are just the start of a proper observation of Oktoberfest, which in Munich is more like a country fair than an American craft beer fest. This year’s edition of KC’s largest German fest puts extra emphasis on games and brings in its own Glockenspiel. The games include the return of the popular giant tricycle races on an extreme track, plus adding more stumps for Hammerschlagen (a folk game in which you swing a hammer to drive a nail into a stump) and more cornhole boards. There’s also a tribute to the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, which in Munich is a century-old clock outfitted with life-size figures that move to tell stories from German history on the hour. In KC, the clock will be a group of performers doing short skits and music on the hour, every hour. — MARTIN CIZMAR
KANSASCITYMAG.COM OCTOBER 2022
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