Oktoberfest on the Rocks

The sound of German Polka music isn’t something you’d normally hear while walking through a park in New York State. Neither is the sight of men in lederhosen and women in dirndl dresses, locked arm in arm, dancing to it.

But at Bear Mountain’s Annual Octoberfest, with four musicians on stage in knee-high socks and green suspenders, singing, “Yodaley-hoo,” such partying is all part of the day.

At the beergarden, under an array of tents, you can get your own stein filled to the brim with goldfrothy beer and sit at one of the many picnic tables, where whole families congregate to delve their stomachs into an array of German food: bratwurst on a roll with onions; smoked pork chops with apples sauce; stuffed cabbage, potato pancakes; pierogis and sauerkraut.

Bear Mountain’s 2006 Annual Octoberfest takes place in a picnic area beside a lake at the base of Bear Mountain. It celebrates the traditional Oktoberfest held every year in Munich, Germany. The Bear Mountain version runs from mid-September through the end of October every weekend from 12 to 6 P.M.

Octoberfest party crashers inhabit this wooded region and try to take advantage of any intoxicated party-goers. The vendors sell items completely unrelated to Oktoberfest: Christmas stockings embroidered with dogs and cats; baskets of plastic corn and leaves. Why not let a tattooist paint your skin with a temporary tattoo? Nothing says German Oktoberfest like tribal ink-marks. And then there’s Rebecca King, a middle-aged woman selling hideous chain-mail necklaces – necklaces made of interlocked metal rings. She sold cloaks too – as though togas just went out of style.

But you may find yourself drifting to the stage area like a cartoon mouse to the smell of cheese when you inhale the aroma of waffles. Follow your nose, and you’ll watch a apron-wearing teenager pour butterscotch and drop scoops of ice cream onto freshly-made Belgian waffles.

Check the time with Coo Coo clocks swinging their pendulums on a wall being sold by husband-and-wife John and Norma Costa, along with lid-covered steins engraved with traditional German scenes, such as the Oktoberfest parade in Munich. The Fest originated to celebrate King Ludwig’s birthday. And the lids – to keep out the flies back in those days.

Buzz your way over to the picnic tables and try the sauerbraten that falls apart in the mouth. The potato salad that tastes oniony. And the red cabbage that tastes like…red cabbage. But forget the nackwurst on a roll, which tastes like a barbecue hotdog.

But why not grab yourself a stein and plate of food and watch a drummer, accordion player, guitarist, and vocalist play traditional German polka songs? Listen to the belching screams of the intoxicated audience. Or dance beside other attendees wearing lederhosen and feather-tipped caps.

Of course, there arrives a time when the music stops as the sun meets the crest of the mountain, when the polka band and crowd hold their beer steins in the air singing, “Ziggy Zagga, Ziggy Zagga, hoy, hoy, hoy – GUUULP!...ahhh.