German Club Oktoberfest Draws Crowd of 53

The German Club's annual Oktoberfest had the best turnout that I’ve ever seen in my four years at Moravian.

The turnout varies each year, likely because of a combination of advertising, timing, and the weather. This year the weather wasn’t fantastic, but that didn’t stop the 53 people who came to Oktoberfest.

Yup, you read that right. 53 people. It might not sound like much, but considering Oktoberfest usually draws 25-30 people, we got almost double the usual turnout.

Of course, having more people turn up than you expected has its drawbacks. The German Club President and I were scrambling to keep cooking food for the guests. The bratwurst in particular was popular, and we went through all of what we bought. In the end we had to resort to making hot dogs.

The bratwurst was not the only smashing success. The other food items that did well included raspberry kuchen (basically a pastry with raspberry filling in the middle and topped with icing), apple strudel (a personal favorite), and spaezle (a kind of noodle that you can put salt, olive oil, or any other dressing on). They were all delicious and were gone in an hour and a half.

We also had sauerkraut to go along with the bratwurst, but not too many people ate that. I can’t blame them; I hate the smell of it, and it was hard cooking the bratwurst while I was inhaling ode de sauerkraut.

Interestingly enough, the usual chips and pretzels were hardly touched. Then again, the President and I forgot to bring them out until halfway through the party. Still, it was nice to see everyone enjoying the German-themed food.

As to the party itself, everyone seemed to be having a good time. We had background music playing while everyone was conversing (in English) and eating. It was a great chance for the officers to talk to the new members and for the German professors to talk to their students (there were some who came because they are taking German and heard about it) outside of class. It was also a chance to just sit back and relax a bit. Well, for everyone else. The President and I, not so much. But it’s a small price to pay for having such a good turnout.

The only notable thing that happened was the balloon fight. We had blown up some balloons and scattered them around the suite, along with some streamers we had put up. Some of the new members took the balloons and decided to start a volleyball-esque battle. Luckily it was contained in the living room and nothing was broken. It might have been slightly childish but it was fun to watch.

To anyone who attended, what did you think of Oktoberfest?