Oktoberfest at Fort Belvoir...
Date: October 01, 2006 01:14AM
...it sucks...
Me and my kraut freinds took a trip down to Ft. Belvoir this evening to see what their idea of "Oktoberfest" is really like. I honestly didn't expect to get much of a Munchen-like experience out of this event, especially given the fact that the festival is held on an American military base. And man was I ever right. The first thing I saw upon walking in was that the main food tent was sponsored by Boardwalk Fries- boy that's got "deutschland" written all over it! It's also a family event, so first we had to wait in a huge line to get wristbands proving our legal drinking age, and then we immediately went to the beer tent. The beer tent had two Miller Beer trucks serving three brews from Munich's impressive Spaten Brewery; a marzen, lager, and that Fraziskaner weisse they market in the US. All good stuff. They also had one tap running Coors Light (lol, wtf is up with that).
The fest itself had a whole lot of rides and typical carnival games where you could play goofy stuff to win stuffed animals (or, drunkenly cheer at people trying to win stuffed animals like me and my freinds did). There were also alot of the usual carnival food selections; I guess everyone knows how those Bavarians loved their corndogs, pizza, and cotton candy?
After many beers, we finally visited the vaunted "Food Tent" where they served bratwurst, knockwurst, sauerkraut, "german" potato salad, and a few other things that probably would just piss off most Germans if they ever saw it at an Oktoberfest celebration. This food was neither authentic or very good. Those Boardwalk Fries people should just leave their fatherland aspirations alone and stick with the deepfryer. The knockwurst tasted like a hot dog and was barely lukewarm, and the "german" potato salad was bland and mushy. On the positive side, it gave us a reason to drink more.
So if you're looking for an Oktoberfest, save your money and go elsewhere. This is just a county fair with catchy, misleading advertising. It's not bad, it's just a badly executed idea. Oh, and the security on the way in is horrendous- we got pulled over by MP's at the entrance, were asked for our ID's, asked for our daytime phone number (?), and then were sniffed by one of those K-9 units- it was like a real Nazi Germany experience!
Next week's event in Shirlington will surely be much better.