We were expecting it to be a 28-letter long word with at least one umlaut in it, but no – the German word for "innovation" is "innovation." Well, regardless of that, this Friday, Oct. 11 is the the first day of Canada's largest Bavarian festival, Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest. While the festival celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, its 51st is one that is seeing some fundamental changes to this local institution.
We all know change is hard. That's especially true for a festival that's been going on for half a century. I sat down with Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest President Tim Beckett (whose day job is literally putting out fires as Mississauga's Fire Chief) to talk about one big change for this year's festival and one new program designed to make Oktoberfest more inclusive and welcoming.
Oktoberfest isn't just about beer. But the beer is important
While craft beer now dominates the tap lineups from Beertown to Arabella Park to The Bent Elbow, it wasn't always this way. The first Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest was in 1969 and it would be another 15 years before Ontario's first craft brewer, Brick Brewing, would open its doors to pour the boar.
For over 30 years, the beer partner for Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest has been Molson Coors Canada. Every Oktoberfest sees renewed requests for different options – and 2019 will see some options that almost everyone in lederhosen and dirndls will be excited about. "Molson Coors Canada is returning as our official domestic partner this year," said Beckett, "and we've been listening to our patrons and our festhallen and we're bringing some great Bavarian beers to our Bavarian celebration."
Last year, Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest festhallen had the opportunity to serve Erdinger beer and this year has added three more European (two of them Bavarian) beers: Hacker-Pschorr, Stiegl and Hofbräu. Craft beer is still on the radar for future festivals. "We're continuing to look at offering more options. We wanted to focus on Bavarian first. Well, Austrian too, in the case of Stiegl," added Beckett.
Making Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest more welcoming
"St. Patrick's Day invites everyone to be Irish for a day and we look at Oktoberfest as inviting everyone to be German for nine," said Beckett. Inviting everyone is one thing. Making it a welcoming experience is another. After the conclusion of last year's festival, the Board of Directors at Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest added a new position – Director of Community Engagement.
Taking the helm of this new role is Melissa Melnychuk, a former Miss Oktoberfest and longtime volunteer with Oktoberfest and other community organizations. Melnychuk's awareness of the need to improve the diversity and inclusion of Oktoberfest came from something her son said. "My children are biracial," said Melnychuk, "and we were at Oktoberfest and my son said 'I'm the only black kid here.' I knew we needed make some changes to make the festival more welcoming and inclusive to everyone in our community."
Melnychuk worked with longtime volunteer and Director of Marketing Allan Cayenne to find ways to make Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest an event where everyone in the community could feel safe.
"We recognized that barriers existed for people in our community," added Beckett, "and one of those is that many people didn't feel our festival was inclusive and safe." This led Melnychuk to meet with a few groups in the community and to the team at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region. Discussions with the SASC team focused on feedback from attendees on festival safety. The topics of consent and sexual assault and harassment really stood out as areas where training could make a difference.
Many festhallen staff and Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest volunteers said they were not sure what to do if they saw an attendee in a situation where they looked uncomfortable or unsafe. Based on this feedback, the SASC developed a new bystander training program for 2019 – "Only Ja Means Ja." Festhallen staff and Oktoberfest volunteers were offered three-hour training sessions to talk about consent, unwanted behaviour and harassment. "The pick up for the bystander training gave me chills," added Melnychuk, "everyone stepped up to participate - from the festhallen to the Board to our volunteers."
It was during one of these sessions that Beckett heard a story that hit home how important this training is. Another volunteer told how he had a woman colleague who was at an Oktoberfest event and was grabbed by someone she didn't know. When she protested, the man said "Oh come on, it's Oktoberfest." At the time, the volunteer didn't know what to do. "The woman then looked back and said 'Why is it different now? It shouldn't be.' and that really made it clear that these conversations and this training was needed."
"Our staff and volunteers now know how to say that the behaviour is not acceptable and how to handle those situations if they happen," said Beckett. "We want to create a festival that everyone feels safe attending."
This year's Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest runs from Friday, Oct. 11 through Saturday, Oct. 19. Here's a few recommended events to check out:
The 2019 Opening Ceremonies and Keg Tapping have moved to King and Frederick streets in downtown Kitchener. The fun starts at 11:15 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 11 with live music and the official keg tapping to kick off the festival.
Bring the family out to Waterloo Public Square on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 11 a.m. for the annual relay-style keg race.
Back this year is the exciting Willkommen Platz. Explore a Bavarian Village where you'll find great food vendors and a marketplace. There's also live entertainment at the main stage and a new Bier Garten. The Willkommen Platz is located in the Europro parking lot at 70 King St. E. between Frederick and Queen streets.
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While those bells haven't rung in years, I see and hear that...The second LOKAL Festival is happening at Workhaus starting at 5 p.m. LOKAL is an Oktoberfest dinner market showcasing the region's finest small-batch makers and musicians. It's PRIDEtoberfest at THEMUSEUM – an evening featuring amazing drag entertainers, the incredible DJ Jayson Spank and delicious food and drink. Get your Halloween started early with a screening of the director's cut of "The Exorcist" at Princess Cinemas at 9 p.m. and Sunday at 4:05 p.m.
