‘It’s a good day out. It’s a fun day.’

Published 3:00pm 11 September 2023

Words by Kylie Knight

Andy Mehringer went to his first Oktoberfest in Munich when he was just two years old. He still loves the colour, music and fun of the event and is looking forward to Redcliffe’s version later this month.

The two-day German extravaganza, at Redcliffe Showgrounds on September 29 and 30, will be a celebration of the Bavarian culture.

It will be the third time Beam Entertainment has staged Redcliffe Oktoberfest, after the idea was brewed by Andy and friend Craig Miley over a couple of beers in 2019.

“Craig and me were sitting there thinking what can we do for Redcliffe, what hasn’t Redcliffe got? It was the German Oktoberfest,” Andy explains.

“Everybody loves a beer and a pork knuckle and fun and games and whatnot, you know.”

Andy was born in Munich and lived there for 30 years before moving to Sydney in 2001.

“When you wake up in the morning, you see the Alps and you can’t see anything … there’s just some rocks in the way all the time … so I just like the ocean,” he says laughing.

“I arrived in Sydney as a backpacker and was one year in Sydney and made my way up to Queensland and saw the bridge and the peninsula … since 2003, I’m here.”

With Brisbane’s Oktoberfest no longer running, he’s hoping to attract revelers from throughout South East Queensland.

“I just think it’s a fun event with good food, good beer, people are talking to each other … it just gives the atmosphere that everybody talks to everyone. It’s just a really cool, cultural event,” Andy explains.

It follows the successful Marchtober Fest earlier in the year, which brought Irish and German culture together.

Andy says Oktoberfest is an authentic event, true to Bavarian culture.

“There’s no chocolate beer or spring rolls either! You’ve got pretzels, pork knuckles, schnitzel and we’ve got German beer, schnapps and wine,” he says.

Andy says he is keen to support local businesses in sourcing suppliers for the event, with meat coming from butchers at Margate and Kippa-Ring.

“Graham from the (Redcliffe) Trots is doing the cooking, so 90 per cent (of suppliers) are on the Peninsula or surroundings,” he says.

“We have ginger beer because it’s hot and people love ginger beer, but this is the only thing I allowed that is maybe not so German. That’s brewed by Horny Wombat in Clontarf.”

What’s happening at this year’s event?

There will be plenty of food, beer, music and dancing along with some truly German competitions and games. These include:

Beer stein stemmen – competition to see how long contestants can hold a full beer stein for
Beer stein sculling – who can drink their stein of beer the fastest
Mr and Mrs Oktoberfest – best-dressed competition
Nail hitting competition
Tug of war competition

“It’s a good day out. It’s a fun day,” Andy says.