It’'s been several years since calls of "Prost!" rang out in Port Moody, but Oktoberfest is returning to the City of the Arts.
Lagerhosen is reviving the traditional German celebration of beer, bratwurst and Oom-pah music on Oct. 14, from 4 to midnight at the Site B Community space at 3012 Murray St.
The event will feature beer from all six local breweries on Port Moody's Brewers Row, live music by Vancouver's own Oktoberfest band, The Oktoberators, traditional beer hall food like brats, sauerkraut, pretzels and schnitzel served up by Frankie Street Food, as well as crazy games like corn hole and hammerschlagen — driving nails into a wooden stump — and contests.
Among the latter will be a steinholding competition, or masskrugtemmen, in which participants must hold a full one-litre beer stein straight out in front of their bodies for as long as they can with the last stein still untipped declared the winner.
According to the US Steinholding Association, which has formulated rules and training tips for such competitions across North America, the challenge is not as easy as it might first seem.
A full regulation dimpled glass stein weighs about 2.25 kg and the average male competitor might be able to straight-arm it for three to five minutes with female steinholders enduring one to three minutes.
The current men's record, though, is 21 minutes, 17 seconds, set in 2018 at the Steuben Day Parade and New York City Oktoberfest, while the top women's time is six minutes, 10 seconds, set last year at the same event.
"Steinholding is a mental battle," said the association on its website.
"The first time you raise that stein up, you'll probably start out thinking 'this isn't so bad, I can totally do this.' Pretty quickly though, you’ll realize that your body simply does not want you to be a part of this activity."
Some of the suggestions the association’s founder, Jim Banko, offers to prepare for serious steinholding competition are:
- weight training and exercises to strengthen the shoulder, scapular stabilizing muscles and core
- lifting a full stein and walking with it for 60 yards, then switching hands and walking another 60 yards
- practising an increasing number of 60-second steinholding sets broken up by 60-second intervals that are progressively reduced to 10 or 15 second breaks
For the less-athletically inclined, there will also be awards for the best costume, likely involving lederhosen and metres of dirndl.
Port Moody last hosted an Oktoberfest celebration in 2018, ending a three-year run that began in 2016.
Oktoberfest is a traditional festival of Bavarian culture that began in Munich, Germany, in 1810. While early events also involved horse races and displays of Bavarian agriculture, by the time the 20th century rolled around the emphasis narrowed to drinking beer, parades and partying in massive pavilions or tents. Revellers at last year’s 17-day festival consumed approximately 5.6 million litres of beer.
Visitors to Port Moody's Lagerhosen likely won’t come anywhere near that, but their ticket will get them their first beer poured into a special stein as well as a chance to win a door prize.
For more information and a link to buy tickets, you can go to the event's website.
