Oktoberfest in the Village
Oktoberfest is the world's largest Volksfest (people’s festival). It is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is a 16 to 18-day folk festival running from mid- or late September to the first Sunday in October, with more than six million people worldwide attending the event every year.
The idea is to create a much smaller and shorter people’s festival annually in the Village to encourage people from the area to discover the local bars, restaurants, and shops. The idea is to start with a 2-3 day mid-week event in late September with as many local merchants participating as possible.
Each merchant would decide what, if any, music, entertainment, or specials they choose to offer.
FOVEC would promote the event in general and offer sponsorship opportunities to any business that wanted to be featured in the advertising or participate in some form of contest or giveaway.
For the first year, there would be no street closures or public performances beyond what specific merchants choose to offer.
The goal would be to see if we could bring an extra 100-200 people to the Village for eating, drinking, and shopping.
We are looking for comments and ideas!
Suggestions we are looking at:
Create a map or passport where people get it punched at each location and whoever fills their entire map or "passport" gets a gift or gift card or is entered into a raffle etc....
Have photo backgrounds or green screens for selfies
Define a designated Uber/Lyft pickup spot
Costumes with some type of contest
Beer and wine tastings
Local artist and craft displays
Dancing, singing, acting, etc.
Suggestions not planned for this year:
Picnic tables - would love to, but no place to put them while the Park is closed
Kids events - same answer as above
Weekend - goal is to make this a multi-day event which would include the weekend starting in 2023
Help needs:
Volunteers to speak with local business owners and explain the concept and gain their support
Volunteers to create the marketing material
Volunteers to spread the word through family, friends, social media
Volunteers to help the day of the event with setup, questions, cleanup