By Jacqueline Trewin
Dust off your dirndl and don your lederhosen for the second annual Oktoberfest in Cooroy set to be a day jam-packed with activities for the whole family.
Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart will open the free event expected to draw bigger crowds this year on Saturday 1 October at Saw and Mill Restaurant in their outdoor Beer Hall on the Green.
“Last year we had a really successful event with over two thousand people attending. This year we’re expecting even more, but we’ve also got more activities,” Saw and Mill restaurant manager Kimberly Bateman said.
“Lots of planning is involved to ensure it’s a fun and safe event for everyone,” she said.
The Oktoberfest was first held in 1810 to honour the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen through several days of public drinking and feasting that helped to unify a kingdom.
Third generation master baker and German Bakehouse owner Sven Noack who is currently busy baking thousands of pretzels for the Oktoberfest in Brisbane says the festival in Cooroy is unique.
“A lot of restaurants and cafes do not do Oktoberfest like we do. We have a beer tent, an authentic band and everything else that reminds you of Oktoberfest in Munich,” Mr Noack said.
Featuring authentic Bavarian music, the Oktoberfest Show Band will transport you to Munich, where the largest beer festival in the world is now in full swing.
Three local breweries, such as Eumundi Brewery, Heads of Noosa and Your Mates Brewing Co. and Alphen Liquor Wholesalers will be providing premium beverages, giving the perfect opportunity to say, ‘Prost!’
But the Cooroy gala is not all about drinking beer. With local businesses and charities coming together to celebrate German culture, it will be a major highlight on the community calendar.
“We wanted to do something for Cooroy that involved a lot of businesses out there and to give back to the community with the charities and all the free activities for kids,” Ms Bateman said.
Lifeline Cooroy will be parading its fashion on the catwalk and hosting a best-dressed competition for those embracing their inner Bavarian. The charity will also be holding a stall to raise funds to support its 24/7 Crisis Support Line.
Hoofbeats Sanctuary, an equine therapy centre in Doonan delivering therapeutic intervention programs for survivors of trauma, will entertain the kids with the popular lob-a-choc game to support their valuable work in the community.
Other activities for the kids include a petting zoo, jumping castles, face painting and balloon animals, or they can join the adults in the crowd-pleasing giant hot dog eating competitions.
But the festival would not be authentic without the interactive Bavarian shenanigans, such as:
• Hammerschlagen where contestants compete to hammer nails into a wooden stump.
• Stein Racing where contestants carry a litre stein of beer without spilling it.
• Stein Holding competition where contestants hold a litre stein of beer with a straight arm parallel to the ground.
• The ultimate Strongman weight-lifting competition.
Hosted by event organisers German Bakehouse and Saw and Mill Restaurant, Ms Bateman says the Cooroy festival has grown rapidly since its inception with the support of patrons and the community.
“We sat down in April last year with the staff from German Bakehouse and discussed the idea of Oktoberfest,” she said.
“It started off as basically a simple picnic and then evolved into this massive event involving communities and charities.
“We thought it would be great to do together because German Bakehouse has strong connections with the German community on the Coast,” Ms Bateman said.
Coolum manager of German Bakehouse Jacinta Ward says Mr Noack, who will be baking over a thousand pretzels for the event, is looking forward to the festival.
“Heritage is very important to Sven and to be able to celebrate Oktoberfest where he lives now is pretty amazing,” Ms Ward said.
“There is a big German population on the Coast and so I think it is important to celebrate German culture here,” she said.
German heritage on the Sunshine Coast dates back to the late 1800s when German farming communities influenced the development of local communities, notably at Witta (formerly Teutoberg), Buderim and Peachester.
According to a 2021 demographic survey of the Sunshine Coast population by.id Informed Decisions, 6.6 per cent are ranked as having German ancestry and 6.1 per cent spoke a language other than English at home — the dominant being German (0.4 per cent of the population).
Ms Ward says the Oktoberfest would be enough to lift everyone’s spirits in the community.
“Considering what we’ve all gone through these past couple of years with limited events and places to go, I think it’s important we carry tradition, have fun and give something to the community to look forward to,” she said.
Sponsored by Aaction Traffic and Noosa Party Hire, the event is from 11am-9pm. VIP tickets are available via Event Brite (search for Oktoberfest Cooroy).
For more information, go to facebook.com/OktoberfestCooroy/.
