A Brief History of Oktoberfest

October 12, 1810, four years after Bavaria had become a kingdom, crown prince Ludwig of Bavaria (later King Ludwig I) married princess Therese of Saxon-Hildburghausen.

The official festivities lasted five days and included parades of riflemen, music, eating and drinking. The festivities ended with a horse race held on a green, which was situated in those days outside of the city limits and named "Theresienwiese" (Theresa's Meadow) in honor of the bride. Over the next years the horse race was repeated and the Oktoberfest, also called "Wiesn" was born and is still held in the same location under the gaze of the Bavaria statue.

The annual Oktoberfest in Munich is the world's largest Volksfest, beer festival and fair, attracting some 6.7 million visitors in 2024.

The Leonia Oktoberfest tradition started a bit more modestly in 2000, when a visit by German friends in a local backyard occasioned a spontaneous Bavarian-themed cookout.

The follwoing year, in the aftermath of 9/11, the hosts made the deliberate decision to not change our way of live and, instead, to celebrate life, history and western traditions while asking for donations to support various causes. By 2010, the host had joined Rotary and Oktoberfest became the premier fundraiser for the the Rotary Club of The Palisades.

What had started as a family event became a community event and fundraiser and by 2012 had outgrown the backyard. It was time to find a bigger venue. The next year, Leonia's Oktoberfest moved to the American Legion Post No. 1 where we created Leonia's Beer Garden, but, within a few years, even that space became too small and we moved, again, to our current location in Wood Park, Leonia's Beer Garden.

For 2020, due to the Corona pandemic, Oktoberfest returned to a socially distant backyard and went online. In cooperation with the Rotary Club of Wall Street, we even participated in a virtual Oktoberfest including videos from Munich and cooking demonstrations.

Now we are back in Leonia's Beer Garden at Wood Park with ample room for families to gather and have a good time while supporting our fundraising efforts for the Weekend Snack Pack Program and our other projects.