Germany comes to Alberton for Oktoberfest celebration

ALBERTON – A little bit of Germany came to Alberton Saturday when the town celebrated their first annual Oktoberfest.

The event was organized by John Zunski, owner of the Sportsman’s Bar, and included four other businesses in the inaugural celebration. The other four businesses involved were Trax Bar, the Fat Belly Deli, the Alberton Bakery and the Lakeland Feed and Supply store.

Zunski decided to start an Oktoberfest in Alberton as a way of raising awareness of the town and its community.

“I feel that Alberton is a gem of a town and a beautiful location and it needs to have more attention,” said Zunski.

Zunski said his plan was to start small and build on the event as time goes on. His eventual hope is to get the whole community involved and have Oktoberfest meet or exceed Railroad Days, Alberton’s summer celebration.

“My goal is to have a town event for each quarter of the year,” Zunski said. “I would like to have an event every season.”

While there are five businesses involved, Zunski feels they are largely working independently of one another.

Sportsman’s Bar tapped a keg of German beer, to be eaten with German food, as well as playing German music. Zunski, members of the staff and customers all dressed in stereotypical German clothes for the day.

According to Zunski, Trax Bar also offered German food and music. They held a lederhosen contest and a pool tournament. Trax also presented the offer that if players in the tournaments wore pink, in observance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, part of their entry fee would be donated to the research foundation.

The Fat Belly Deli, right next door to Sportsman’s, also had a German menu and the waitresses dressed up as bar maids. Their Oktoberfest menu featured jeagers schnitzel with a mushroom gravy. Steven Gregory, owner of the deli, said he loved the idea when Zunski suggested doing an Oktoberfest.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Gregory. “Sometimes going into winter, it gets a bit slow, so [the tourism business] is good.”

In what was described as a fortunate coincidence by Jessie Nichols, a sales representative of the feed and supply store, the Lakeland Feed and Supply store was having their annual Customer Appreciation Day at the same time. While they didn’t have many Oktoberfest events going on, Nichols said they tried to support the more involved businesses.

“We tried to do as much cross-marketing as we could,” said Nichols. “[Sportsman’s] gave us drink chips, we gave them prizes for their contests.”

The feed store offered a petting zoo with pony rides, a horse-drawn carriage ride around town, a barbecue and a bounce house. They also offered a limited supply of home brew and their own pink breast cancer awareness display. Profits from their sales went to fight against breast cancer.

To Angela MacDonald, the Alberton community seems to be receptive to the idea of Oktoberfest. Even hours before the big events were scheduled to start, she said she had seen a lot of people dressed up in German outfits.

With “hundreds” of events available in the summer, and not as many in the fall, MacDonald feels it would be nice to have a big fall event to draw the community together and bring people to Alberton. MacDonald said she had spoken to a lot of people who were really excited.

“Everybody I’ve talked to, who knows it’s happening, is planning on showing up tonight, to one [or more] places,” MacDonald said.

Since the event was mostly advertised through the Alberton community page and Sportsman’s Facebook page, MacDonald is unsure of how far word of the event spread outside Alberton.

Zunski and the other businesses involved seem very optimistic about the new event and, though they plan to take things slow and let it build naturally, they all hope for the best in years to come.