08/06/2026
Can you believe that Northside Oktoberfest is just around the corner? Us neither! We’re so incredibly excited to share our love of b**r with our community, and can’t wait to celebrate German and b**r culture with you all! With this being the 30th Anniversary, we thought we’d share a little bit of Oktoberfest history with you today.
Did you know?
The very first Oktoberfest was actually a celebration of the royal marriage between Crown Prince Ludwig of Munich and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen on October 12th, 1810. It lasted a week and featured a horse race. To this day, horses are a mainstay of the parade in Munich and their presence serves as the longest standing tradition.
A Greek delegation attended the festival in 1832 and would later cite Oktoberfest as a model for Zappas Olympics, the precursor to the modern-day Olympics.
The original food associated with Oktoberfest was not bratwurst, but in fact, pretzels! The first bratwurst stand wouldn’t arrive until 1881, nearly 70 years after the first festival.
During the 19th century, the festival was moved to late September to take advantage of the warmer evenings, and now only the last few days of the festival are in October.
Stay tuned as we post more Oktoberfest fun facts, exciting announcements, and brewery line-ups every week until the big day. If you haven’t purchased your Brewfest (tasting event portion) tickets yet, you can do so at https://downtowniowacitymarket.com/products/2026-iowa-city-brewfest-northside-oktoberfest . Tickets are limited and going quickly this year, so don’t delay!
Prost!
