The German-Texas Heritage Society celebrated both Oktoberfest and German-American Day on Saturday October 6th. The day-long event featuring “old country” German traditions was held at the German Free School on 10th Street. This was the only Oktoberfest held in Austin, although there are other Central Texas celebrations in towns such as Fredericksburg.

At noon, Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell tapped the keg in true Oktoberfest tradition and was then presented with a huge stein of beer. Hopefully our mayor had a designated driver.

Revelers in the Biergarten were entertained by a polka band, German folk dancers, and a yodeler who was supposedly doing community service for jaywalking. We were not so sure this was true, but he did a pretty good yodel.

Authentic German food and beer were for sale. Bill tried a beef/lamb kebap from local “Berlin-inspired” restaurant Verts. I enjoyed an extremely healthy brezel-and-apple-strudel lunch. For dessert, we split a lebkuchenherz, a large heart-shaped gingerbread cookie. (The first photo in this entry is a “before” photo of our lebkuchenherz.)