gnatweds

So, in an effort to go out and do something different we decided to catch the Oktober fest celebrations in New Ulm Minnesota. The fact that they held the celebrations in October should have set off some alarm bells.(If I am not wrong, Okotberfest is celebrated at the end of September).

New Ulm is a small town in Minnesota two and a half hours ride from Rochester. It was founded in 1854 by German immigrants and hence named after a town in Bavaria, Neu-Ulm. Apparently, it's famous for a statue called "Herman the German" (???????)

All this sounded extremely quaint and romantic. Large frosty mugs of beer danced around to the sound of um-pah pah music in my mind's eye. hah...

anyhow, the celebrations were held at two locations, one out on Centre St(which was closed for the occasion) and the other at the Holiday New Ulm. The former was free and latter involved an $8 cover charge.

To cut a long story short, both had polka bads that played American tunes(theme from "The Man show", plus some evergreen hits) to a polka beat, and beer was served in plastic cups at both locales. I don't particularly have a soft spot for German polka music whether sober or drunk, but let's just say I can now tell the difference between good polka and bad polka. Good polka is tolerable, almost makes you want to get up, stand on your bench, swing that giant beer mug around before pouring it down the hatch. Bad polka on the other hand, should be reserved for "seventh month" celebrations(but hang-on, that's suppose to entertain ghost right? not drive then away, hmmm). One band was pretty proud of they're very own composition which went "yaaaaaah sure you beeeeetchaaaaaaaaa..." over and over again to a polka beat. Whatever they were smoking sure didn't get passed our way. Oh, and we were possibly the youngest people there at that particular event(also possibly half the age of most of the other people around).

We didn't hand around long at all, think 2 hours tops. At least the drive was nice. I have to say I kinda miss the Oktoberfest at the Swiss Club despite the fact that it's S$80(!) just for food and there aren't that many beers to choose from. Well, I have to remember to get my hands on some tickets for next year's.

EG