Crown Point enjoyed a night of brats and beer on Saturday, celebrating their 14th annual OktoberFest. Visitors from the city and beyond packed into Bulldog Park to enjoy local favorites such as Crown Brewing, Prime Steakhouse, Ricochet Tacos, and more – the city only had one condition for the vendors: feature a German item on the night’s menu.
The evening also played host to a number of Crown Point’s other OktoberFest traditions, like pie and applesauce eating contests and plenty of live music from bands such as Lauren Dukes Band, High Street Band, and Nawty. With fall settling in, Crown Point Mayor David Uran loves that Oktoberfest gives the community one last chance to get together outdoors before the cold moves in.
“Winters in Northwest Indiana are difficult to endure sometimes, and we don’t have ski resorts or snowmobile trails so we kind of hibernate,” he says. “Where our St. Patrick’s Day Parade opens things up in spring, Oktoberfest kind of provides some closure to the seasonal activities here in Crown Point and I think that’s part of why it’s always been so successful.”
Ryan Drees and his son, Ryan Drees Jr., visited the festival from Griffith. The father-son duo also challenged the pie and applesauce eating contests, and both won their respective events.
“I was in the Marines, so eating fast is pretty natural,” Drees said. “I was expecting [Ryan Jr.] to do pretty well, but even if he’d come in last it still would’ve been amazing.”
Their victories, and the gift cards to Culver’s and Station 21 that came along with them, were nice – but Drees was mostly just happy to be out and about with his family.
“I love this, every bit of it,” Drees said of the festivities. “Especially with COVID, seeing people come together like this is amazing.”
Crown Point’s OktoberFest has also started to build a reputation for getting rained on, and this year’s continued the trend - but with Bulldog Park’s huge, sheltered pavilion, the party went on uninterrupted.
“I just want to say thank you to our staff who continue to put this on, our vendors here in the Crown Point community, and to everyone who comes out to support our events like this,” said Uran. “2021’s been a great year despite all the things that are taking place with the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been able to do these things safely, professionally, and to keep our businesses in a position to be successful.”
To keep up with all the latest information about events and activities in Crown Point, visit crownpoint.in.gov or follow Crown Point Special Events on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CPSpecialEvents.
