A successful opening weekend for Oktoberfest
Posted Oct 11, 2011 10:26:29 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The city celebrates as Oktoberfest takes over the region with some record numbers.
Mark Kreller, executive director of Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest says opening weekend was fantastic and he thanks mother nature.
“The weather plays a major role in everything that goes on in Oktoberfest.”
He said from a festhall stand point an increase between the 5 to 10% range have been reported this opening weekend.
“Chicopee house had a great night on Saturday night and I think they are pretty happy for a first time hall opening this year,” Kreller said.
“Almost all other halls were pretty full if not completely full including Bingemans both Friday and Saturday who had strong attendance in their new 3000 person tent.”
He says although hotels aren’t 100% booked, business is good in the core.
“Conversations with the Oktoberfest Delta hotel and the Walper have shown that they’ve seen their fair share of activity this weekend.”
Kreller says it’s crunch time for the upcoming weekend as Saturday night is sells out in every festhall, so get your tickets quick.
“It starts to put some pressure on the consumer to make sure they book their tickets for the weekend coming up.”
“We are expecting some great results this coming weekend.”
He says he can tell the attendance was incredible at the Thanksgiving Day Parade based on some exceptional donations.
“We were up in our food bank donations by 2500 dollars and a couple thousand pounds in goods.”
He said people who can’t get tickets for the weekend always have Thursday and Friday as great alternatives.
