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Ahead of Syracuse Oktoberfest Band’s performance, Ray Sturge readied his alpenhorn — a multiple-meter long wooden horn, divided up into three detachable parts. Donning his lederhosen and Tyrolean hat, Sturge lifted his trumpet — one of his four instruments, also including the flugelhorn and saw — to play the first note of “Stand and Sing Ein Prosit.”

The German tune reverberated through the high ceilings of Harvey’s Garden, which hosted Syracuse’s first two-week celebration of Oktoberfest. The music, the blue-and-white diamonds of the Bavarian flag and, of course, German beer marked another day of the festival in Syracuse.

“We’ve expanded the whole Oktoberfest theme to more than just the 12 days before the first Saturday in October,” Sturge said.

Harvey’s Garden, a new biergarten on Water Street, aimed to do the same thing. Since Sept. 16, the bar has hosted a great breadth of events — including musical performances, Beer Olympics, Dachshund racing, authentic German cuisine, pretzel-eating contests and more — to bring a true Oktoberfest celebration to Syracuse.

Ryan Sahm, a managing partner and general manager at Harvey’s, said the bar’s celebration is modeled after how Oktoberfest is traditionally celebrated in Munich, Germany. Most Oktoberfests in Syracuse are just a few hours at a brewery or a weekend set aside at a bar, Sahm said. No one in the city seemed to be throwing a full celebration that lasted two weeks.

“There’s a need — we have Italian Fest, we have Irish Fest for two or three days over the weekend,” Sahm said. “But we collectively couldn’t figure out where [to find] an Oktoberfest that lasted more than a weekend.”

And most people don’t even know the story behind Oktoberfest, Sturge said. In 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria — eventually King Ludwig I — was getting married to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. He decided to throw a huge party in honor of his nuptials, calling it Oktoberfest. The festivities lasted from mid-September to the first Saturday in October, after which he got married. The original event boasted horse races, carnival booths, luxurious prizes and lots of beer.

Kyle Chouinard | Managing Editor

Harvey’s Garden aimed to create an Oktoberfest experience that lasted longer than a weekend. With a German band, German cuisine and more, their celebration lasted over two weeks.Kyle Chouinard | Managing Editor

“Olympic-sized swimming pools of beer. I’m told seven Olympic-sized swimming pools of beer are consumed each year,” Sturge said.

But it’s not all about the beer. The Dachshund race stuck out to Gavin Brown, supervisor at Harvey’s. He arrived in the middle of the competition, he said, and was met with a huge crowd eagerly cheering on the small German dogs scampering through the yard.

“They’re clearly not race dogs,” Brown joked. “They’re just people’s weiner dogs that decided to run toward some sort of target.”

In the first week, Harvey’s also hosted Symphoria, which played an array of German tunes and “Sweet Caroline,” a popular song in Munich’s Oktoberfest celebration. The bar held a “Best Dressed Lederhosen & Dirndls Contest,” and Chicken Bandit altered its standard menu to offer authentic German food. In the upcoming week, the celebration will include another Beer Olympics, a variety of beer tastings, live trivia and another performance from Syracuse Oktoberfest Band.

Determined to bring a Bavarian essence to central New York, Sahm, the bar’s owners and its social media manager all started planning Harvey’s Oktoberfest in April, just four months after Harvey’s opened its doors.

John Klocek, an accordion player for the Syracuse Oktoberfest Band, applauded Harvey’s efforts to bring a true marathon of Oktoberfest events to the area.

“It’s good (Harvey’s) is trying to revive an Oktoberfest, and what other band (should they) have for this type of event? A real German band, because we’re playing real authentic German songs,” Klocek said.

German beer in hand, flaunting his lederhosen in front of a blue and white Oktoberfest banner, Klocek reflected on the German identity in Syracuse. There used to be two German organizations, he said, the Arion Singing Society and the Turners Club. Both have dwindled down, as older members have since passed away and the younger generations have been hesitant to get involved.

Sturge also noticed the diminishing of local German culture and said that the nature of a true Oktoberfest celebration has been washed out of the community’s tradition.

“We don’t really celebrate [Oktoberfest] in the traditional sense. We don’t have a beer tent with 5,000 people singing lustily to beer-barrel polka,” Sturge said. “It would be kind of nice if we did!”

It’s been an experimental process, Sahm said, but Harvey’s is already looking towards next year’s Oktoberfest. The bar has a large outside area, and Sahm hopes this will play into future celebrations.

“‘Syracuse’s Backyard’ is the vibe we want,” Sahm said. “We have a backyard, and this is where we want the city to come hang out with their friends, at a larger scale than their own backyards.”

Published on September 24, 2023 at 11:01 pm