Yesterday we went to Oktoberfest in St. Charles, MO, for the second time. It has quickly become our favorite local Oktoberfest, so it’s kind of hard to believe 2023 was our first visit!

I go to Oktoberfest for three things…German music:

German dancing:

And German food…in this case pretzels!

I also love to just take the event in…and do a little window shopping. It’s a miracle I left without adding another dirndl to my closet!

Speaking of dirndls, this was the first Oktoberfest Ladybug got to wear her dirndl to…it was fun dressing up with somebody!

It was super muddy from the hurricane Helene remnants that hit our area all day yesterday, but an otherwise beautiful day…mostly cloudy, breezy, and not at all hot!

I’m really glad we found this event, because I think it’s pretty much as close as you can get to Munich without leaving the midwest!

Yesterday we went to St. Charles Oktoberfest for the first time, and it was so much fun! I really loved the location at Frontier Park right on the banks of the Missouri River…it’s the perfect place for a festival!

There were lots of tents, and we got to hear several bands:

There were also German dancers, which I absolutely loved!

The dancers were from the German Cultural Society of St. Louis, and they also had a booth where they were selling cookbooks (I added one to my extensive cookbook collection) and Schwarzwälderkirsch Cupcakes (very tasty!).

Speaking of food…is it even Oktoberfest if you don’t have a pretzel?!? We also tried the schnitzel sandwich, which was served open-faced on rye bread with sauerkraut and mustard…so delicious!

We didn’t get to see the “Wiener Takes All” dog derby, but we did see tons of dachshunds everywhere we went!

And we weren’t there for the glockenspiel performance, but it was cool to get to see the clock!

With apologies to Belleville, this was the best Oktoberfest I’ve been to!

It was almost everything I hoped for in an Oktoberfest…lots of people, lots of tents, German music and dancing, German food, and even places to buy various German items. I think if I want to get my souvenir clothespin, a beautifully decorated Lebkuchenherzen, and a Steckerlfisch, I’m just going to have to plan a trip to Munich, though!