![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/8756b0eb93fb674afb80d5f982538e86.jpg\")
Christopher Booker, center, fills his glass with beer flowing from the tapped keg during Oktoberfest at the Western Museum of Mining & Industry. (Courtesy photo)<\/p>\nNews <\/p>\n
\n Published September 24, 2026 5:00am\n <\/p>\n
More than two centuries ago, in the town of Munich, Germany, the townsfolk came together to celebrate a royal marriage.<\/p>\n
After Bavarian Crown Prince King Louis I wed Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1810, the villagers were still celebrating five days and one horse race later and also presumably mitigating hangovers after much beer consumption.<\/p>\n
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In the following years, an agricultural fair was added to the horse race, as well as more food and drink, and in the 1880s, the annual event was moved to September to celebrate the end of the harvest season and take advantage of warmer weather.<\/p>\n
Christopher Booker, center, fills his glass with beer flowing from the tapped keg during Oktoberfest at the Western Museum of Mining & Industry. (Courtesy photo)<\/p>\n
And this is why every September and October, we in the West don our lederhosen and other German costumery and lift giant steins of German beer to our mouths while watching polka dancers get sweaty in a tent.<\/p>\n
Zum wohl! (That means to your health for the non-German speakers among us.)<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s 14th annual Colorado Springs Oktoberfest is Friday through Sunday at the Western Museum of Mining & Industry. It opens at 5 p.m. Friday with a welcome and the traditional keg-tapping ceremony at 5:25 p.m. in the 6,000-square-foot Festzelt (main tent). Guests 21 and older can get a free beer afterward.<\/p>\n
Event organizer John O\u2019Donnell of O\u2019Donnell & O\u2019Donnell believes the event\u2019s popularity in the Springs is due to the large military presence in town.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 90,000 to 100,000 former military who live here,\u201d he said. \u201cMany of them have been to Germany. When we started Oktoberfest, a lot of them came up to me and said they went to them in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
How much beer is too much beer?<\/p>\n
Oktoberfest revelers often wonder if there can ever be too much beer. O\u2019Donnell orders roughly 70 kegs of Warsteiner beer directly from Germany to satiate the masses. Each keg contains 124 cups of beer.<\/p>\n
School\u2019s in<\/p>\n
If you feel like getting a little more learned, you can attend a one-hour guided Bier Schule, Wine Schule, Schnapps Schule or Mead Schule. You\u2019ll get four German samples and a little bit of history and education. And German pastry from Edelweiss restaurant as a palate cleanser if you go to Bier Schule.<\/p>\n
Dog days<\/p>\n
Your wiener dog has waited all year to either make her comeback or defend her crown during the dachshund races on Saturday and Sunday. Last year, more than 100 dogs raced their little legs ragged, trying to snag glory for their family.<\/p>\n
But why is it always dachshunds that race at Oktoberfests?<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you imagine Great Danes?\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cDachshunds are a German hunting dog. They use them to go down holes and drive out rabbits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entertaining the masses<\/p>\n
Camillo and the Prime Time Band and the U-Turn Brass Band will perform, while the Denver Kickers Schuhplattlers dance group does their thing throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n
What else goes down?<\/p>\n
Das Bake-Auf, a German baking competition in its sophomore year, was a hit at last year\u2019s Oktoberfest. Bring your best German cookies, cakes, strudels and more for a chance to win a KitchenAid stand mixer.<\/p>\n
If you go<\/p>\n
What: Colorado Springs Oktoberfest<\/p>\n
When: 5-11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday<\/p>\n
Where: Western Museum of Mining & Industry, 225 North Gate Blvd.<\/p>\n
Price: Free, $35-$40 wine and stein packages, $15 parking; csoktoberfest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
News Published September 24, 2026 5:00am More than two centuries ago, in the town of Munich, Germany, the townsfolk came together to celebrate a royal marriage. After Bavarian Crown Prince King Louis I wed Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1810, the villagers were still celebrating five days and one horse race later and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[2251,10265,2898,3819,3817,3820,3818,10266,10267,1530,192],"class_list":["post-29503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado","tag-arts","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-dining","tag-colorado-food","tag-colorado-grocery-stores","tag-colorado-restaurants","tag-coloradosprings-com","tag-jennifer-mulson","tag-local","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117327397143161360","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}