If you love fun, festivals and maybe a little beer, you know what this time of year means: Oktoberfest.
Greater Boston and New England at large is at no shortage of Oktoberfest choices. From cityscape to mountainside to overlooking the sea, you can find the perfect Octoberfest for you.
While Oktoberfest is centered around great brews, it’s not just about the beer. Great Octoberfests marry brewing and brats, kegs and camaraderie. It’s a kind of festival atmosphere that yes, does celebrate beer, but works more as an Autumn outdoor party.
City setting: Boston is a beer bonanza, to be sure, and perhaps the king (unless you’re old enough to recall the days of Haffenreffer), is Sam Adams and the Boston Beer Company. While they celebrate everywhere with their annual Oktoberfest beer, you can mark the festivities with them at their annual Oktoberfest Sept. 22-24 at their Boston Taproom and their brewery in Jamaica Plain.
You’ll find live music (plenty of Oompah bands) and DJ’s, festival-inspired brews, stein holding contests with prizes, and lots of food (don’t miss the “Fest Plate” for a smorgasbord of your very own). You can grab tickets ahead of time (https://samadamsbostonbrewery.com) or try for the $10 walk up cover charge, but it fills up fast.
Across the river in Cambridge, close to 100,000 party lovers flock to the annual Harvard Square Oktoberfest (https://www.harvardsquare.com) taking place this year on Oct. 8. Now in its 44th year, it all coincides with the 18th annual HONK parade – a spectacle of incredible music, color and honking bands, and then wraps into a weekend of celebrating not just Bavarian culture, but many – as is on point for Cambridge itself.
Octoberfest runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The HONK! Parade leaves Davis Square at noon and arrives in Harvard Square at approximately 1 p.m.
You’ll find oompah music, Bavarian foods and more, craft booths, beer gardens, food vendors, the Rotary’s Chalk on the Walk event, and the return of the Filipino American Festival, including lots of crafts, cultural performances and Filipino food vendors.
Pro tip: take the train. You’ll never find parking and many streets are closed for the event.
There are more: Pick a brewery in the city you love: Harpoon, Night Shift, Democracy and more and you’ll find a celebration.
Country setting: Join Wachusett Mountain Resort in Princeton for their popular Oktoberfest the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 1 for a mountainside, foliage-flanked family friendly event.
You’ll find giant lawn games, craft and food booths, traditional events like keg toss and stein holding contests, bands, food trucks and yes, beer.
Their Polar Express Chairlift will be running throughout the event, giving you a breathtaking view of the foliage and region all the way to the mountaintop and back.
Tickets are on sale in advance at https://www.wachusett.com.
For a salty breeze, head to Chatham on Cape Cod on Oct. 21 for their day-long Octoberfest, held annually by the Chatham Merchants (https://chathammerchants.com).
From 10:30-4:30 at Kate Gould Park and Chatham Town Hall, this seaside Oktoberfest features a beer garden, live music, food trucks, kids’ games, face painting, lots of arts and crafts and even chances to visit with Hearts and Paws Rescue Dogs.
It’s all set in a classic Cape Cod town where you can stay on to shop, dine and walk the beach.
And then there’s the annual Douglas Octoberfest. Douglas, about 40 miles southwest of Boston near the Rhode Island border, embraces Octoberfest like almost no other.
Set for Oct. 7 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., this Octoberfest (https://www.douglasoktoberfest.com) is like an old-school New England town fair with a Bavarian twist. You’ll find shopping, crafts, lots of food, games, and tons of live entertainment .
This event, in a variety of iterations, has been going on since the late 1800’s. In other words, they’ve had plenty of practice.
