Celina Oktoberfest

From live polka music and Chicken Dance circles to beer-pong tournaments, entertainment options for folks of all ages will be abundant at the inaugural Celina Oktoberfest celebration, set to take over the city’s historic downtown square from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. The family friendly event - featuring a tempting assortment of foods and beverages, as well as a slate of fun activities, contests, shopping opportunities and more - will be presented rain or shine.

“This will be an Oktoberfest celebration unlike any other in Texas,” said Melissa Cromwell, president of the Greater Celina Chamber of Commerce which produces the event.

The Greater Celina Chamber of Commerce is pleased to have Landmark Bank as the title sponsor of the 2018 Celina Oktoberfest celebration. The bank will open its first Celina branch location early next year. “For Landmark Bank to become involved with the community through this event shows that they understand and appreciate the inherently giving spirit of Celina,” Cromwell said.

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Joe Adair, Landmark Bank’s vice president and senior regional retail manager, said the company is “really excited to bring our brand to that market.” At Celina Oktoberfest, “I’m looking forward to being able to meet and talk to the people,” he added, “and to see and hear about what’s going on in Celina and the exciting things that are happening there.”

Celina Oktoberfest’s entertainment lineup will kick off with an old-fashioned cornhole tournament presented by the Celina Police Association, followed by the ceremonial tapping of the keg by Celina Mayor Pro Tem Chad Anderson and a traditional toast. Also scheduled are costume contests for adults and children, demonstrations by experts from Home Depot and a Dachshund Derby dog races sponsored by D&L Farm and Home.

Situated in the city’s square, an expansive beer garden will house events for adults, including beer-pong tournaments and the much-anticipated beer stein-holding competition and race.

In a nod to Celina’s deeply rooted tradition of championship-winning high school football, the day’s biggest college-gridiron matchups will be presented during Celina Oktoberfest on a massive LED screen. From noon to 2 p.m., radio personalities Mike and Cash Sirois, hosts of the popular Cirque du Sirois show on 1310 AM/96.7 FM The Ticket, will broadcast live from the event. Pro-football legends and members of the North Texas chapter of the NFL Alumni Association are also scheduled to appear. The Ticket tent is sponsored by local business North Texas Custom Plumbing.

“Celina’s history is steeped in football,” Cromwell said, “so it’s only fitting that it has a big presence at what is sure to become one of the city’s signature annual festivals.”

The entertainment, including live music and cultural performances, will be nonstop beginning with a set by traveling tuba quartet Imperial Brass, followed by American-polka aficionados The Royal Klobasneks. The Royal Klobasneks is a seven-piece band that strives to preserve the traditional American polka sound made popular during the 1920s through ‘40s. Its repertoire includes a sizeable selection of polkas and waltzes, schottisches, two-steps and fox trots, among others. “Our audiences appreciate that our music is geared equally towards listening and/or dancing, and that there is something for everyone,” explained lead vocalist and accordion player Matt Tolentino. “We try to put some variety into our sets, aside from the usual Oktoberfest repertoire, to help keep it interesting.”

The Bavarian-style dancers of Texanischer Schuhplattler Verein D’Holzar are also set to take the Celina Oktoberfest stage. Established in 1979, the cultural-heritage, nonprofit troupe is the oldest German dance club in Dallas. Its volunteer members perform historic folkdances while donning native costumes of the Oberallgäu region of southwestern Bavaria.

With a sound inspired by the Alps, the classically trained members of Auf Geht’s Musik have toured throughout the U.S. and Europe. Alpineand western-style yodeling figure prominently in the group’s lively sets, as do unusual instruments including the musical handsaw and alpen-

horn, a long, wooden horn favored by mountain dwellers in the Swiss, Austrian, Bavarian and French Alps.

The Fall season is a busy time for Celina Oktoberfest headliners The Dogensteins. Since forming in 2016, the quintet has become a fixture at festivals throughout North Texas and beyond. Its dynamic players are best known for transforming rock, pop, country, metal and new-wave chart-toppers by artists including Lynryd Skynryd, Cyndi Lauper and Green Day, among others, into crowd-pleasing polkas, rollicking waltzes and traditional Texas shuffles.

“One of our main (goals) is getting … polka music out there,” said Wes Kucera, drummer for The Dogensteins. “I think not a lot of people hear about it, or they know about it but they always associate it with an accordion. … To take songs that people recognize and change them to a polka or a waltz, that’s really kind of cool.”

Celina Oktoberfest will also boast a free Kids’ Zone area, sponsored by Martin Marietta. Featuring bounce houses, an obstacle course, a rock-climbing wall and a petting zoo, youngsters can also participate throughout the day in fun events including pumpkin- and cookie-decorating activities.

“The entertainment at Celina Oktoberfest will be nonstop from start to finish,” Cromwell said. “From the main stage to the beer garden and in every corner of the city’s square, there will be exciting options for everyone to enjoy.”

General admission tickets for Celina Oktoberfest are $5 per person. Children age 12 and under will be admitted free, as will any attendee who wears a traditional German lederhosen or dirndl costume to the festival. Tickets are available now for advanced purchase at www.celinaoktoberfest.com, and will also be sold at the gate on the day of the event (cash only). A limited number of specially priced tickets are available on Groupon at https://www.groupon.com/deals/celina-oktoberfest.

Alcoholic-drink tickets ($1 each) will be available at the ticket booth during the festival (four tickets for a 12-ounce beer; six tickets for 16 ounces). Commemorative, half-liter beer steins ($10) can be purchased and used at Celina Oktoberfest or kept as a souvenir.

Free parking and shuttles to the event will be at Celina Elementary School, 550 S. Utah Dr., and at Brookshire’s Food & Pharmacy Celina, 675 Sunset Blvd. Paid parking ($20) will be adjacent to the square at West Pecan Street and North Louisiana Drive. For additional information and event updates, visit https://celinaoktoberfest.com/. Follow @CelinaOktoberfest on Facebook, and @celina_oktoberfest on Instagram.

GENERAL TIMES

11:00am - Gates Open 11:15am - Tapping of the Keg 11:30am - Toast 11:45am - Chicken Dance 12:00-2:00pm - The Ticket 1:45pm - Chicken Dance 3:45pm - Chicken Dance 6:45pm - Chicken Dance 8:00pm - Kids Zone Closes 9:30pm - Bar Sales Close 10:00pm - Event Ends

KID HOURLY ACTIVITIES

11:00-12:30pm - Pumpkin Decorating 12:30-2:00pm - Cookie Decorating 1:30-3:00pm - Home Depot Workshop 3:00pm - Kids Costume Contest (Small Stage) 4:00-5:00pm - Dachshund Derby 4:00-7:00pm - Cake Walk (Inside of Two 29 on the Square) 5:30-7:00pm Pumpkin Decorating

BIERGARTEN/ADULT ACTIVITIES

1:00pm - Stein Holding Contest 2:00-5:00pm Beer Pong Tournament 6:00pm - Beer Stein Races 7:00pm - Adults Costume Contest (In Front of Main Stage)

ENTERTAINMENT LINE-UP

11:30-1:30pm - Imperial Brass (Traveling Tuba Quartet) 2:00-4:00pm - The Royal Klobasneks 4:00-4:30pm - Texanischer Schuhplattler Verein (Bavarian Dancers) 5:00-6:45pm - Auf Gehts Musik 7:30-10:00pm - The Dogensteins

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