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Big Bear Lake
Oktoberfest is one of the hundreds of Big Bear
events. Carrying
the traditions of a German Oktoberfest, competitions
include the popular Beer Stein Carrying Contest. Last year's
female winner competed and beat the German record
for number of filled steins! From a log-sawing
contest, yodeling and dancing to games, gifts and
foods, you'll never be bored at Big Bear Lake
Oktoberfest, one of the finest in Southern
California. A family event, guests bring their
children to enjoy old-fashioned fun under the Big
Bear stars. Other Oktoberfest events in Southern
California include Alpine Village in Torrance, Old
World Village in Huntington Beach and Phoenix Club
in Anaheim.
If you love the
sound of the German brass band and prefer a polka to
Western swing, you're not in Big Bear Lake where
Oktoberfest Hall includes them both. This
family-fun, boot-stompin', log-sawing event brings
out mountain men, flatlanders from the Los Angeles
basin and local Big Bear women who are paid to wear
dirndl dresses and scoot around the floor in dance
mode to keep the party moving.
This Oktoberfest
is serious business. Not only do people pack the
parking lot at the Big Bear Convention Center, they
line up to get in, order food and buy souvenir gifts
from one of the most organized Oktoberfests we've
seen.
Most Oktoberfests
have contests but the contests at this event are
quite serious. Entering the log-saw
competition are people who've had practice at the
Old Miner's Days Loggers Jubilee in Fawnskin's
historic mill months before Oktoberfest .
Down south in Los
Angeles and Orange County, the formula for success
seems more oriented to a night club atmosphere with
sexy girls in tiny skirts serving shot glasses of
liqueurs. Up at the lake, the women wear their
dresses longer and they dig their heels in for some
serious contests in which last year's winner of the
Beer Stein carrying contest beat out the German
record. The lady went to Germany for the play-offs!
Oktoberfest is
owned and operated by a private firm that's been
putting on these annual celebrations for quite some
time. In fact, the huge Convention Center in Big
Bear Lake was built to house the large crowds
attending Oktoberfest.
The rest of the
year the grounds feature fairs, functions, a
Certified California Farmer's Market seasonally and
you can rent the facility for private functions.
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