Celebrating the area’s German heritage, the event was also a fundraiser for a number of community organizations, according to the festival’s President Lorraine Bretzlaff.

“We donate to a lot of causes,” she said. “Pretty much everything goes back. We just have to keep enough to make an Oktoberfest the following year.”

With German flags lined up along the streets of Ladysmith and hundreds of campers stationed across the street from the T.C.R.A., it was evident that the town was gearing up for its biggest party of the year.

Festivities kicked off, on Friday afternoon, inside the Clarence Bretzlaff Hall, which was decorated from wall to wall with regalia.

Inside the building, hundreds of attendees drank, danced and sang along to classic cover tunes by local musician Reg Carkner who kept the crowd fired up from one song to the next.

Next to the canteen, three volunteers managed a few tables topped with piles of official Oktoberfest merchandise.

At 8 p.m., Valley Heritage Radio’s Gerry Bimm stepped on stage to initiate the opening ceremony. The event’s longtime President Lorraine Bretzlaff followed up with a speech of her own where she thanked all the volunteers and sponsors for their contributions to the event.

A number of community leaders also addressed the crowd, including Pontiac MNA André Fortin, MP Will Amos and Thorne Mayor Karen Kelly.

Event coordinator Karl Erfle, then delivered a brief address of his own before officially opening the festival by chanting: “Ziga zaga, ziga zaga, oi, oi, oi. Eins, zwei, drei g’suffa.”

The rest of the evening was capped off by a raucous performance from country cover band Rainwater Whiskey.

For Bimm, Oktoberfest in Ladysmith has always been a good time and a celebration he’s looked forward to every year. While he admitted that he isn’t much of a beer drinker, he enjoys how the party has brought the community together in a way that few other events have.

“It’s a huge community event where you only see these people once per year,” he said. “It’s kind of like a homecoming for everybody really. You hear the locals talk about how this is the time of year when everybody comes home, comes to Oktoberfest. It’s like bigger than Christmas.”

On Saturday, the celebration began with a good old-fashioned breakfast inside the T.C.R.A. hall before heading outside for the horseshoe tournament.

Boasting 20 teams of two players apiece, the tournament featured participants competing in three division with cash prizes on the line.

For lunch, attendees were invited to feast on authentic German cuisine being dished out in the T.C.R.A. hall while Simon Clarke graced them with a collection of classic compositions.

Both inside and outside the hall, a large number of artisanal vendors sold a wide variety of home-made products from their booths.

Back outside, crowds by the hundreds gathered around the 300-foot dirt track to take in the sights and sounds of the truck and tractor pull.

Organized by Mel and Lynne Langton from M&L Enterprises in Beachburg, Ont., the event featured around 30 participants competing in nine divisions ranging from single engine modified tractors to four-wheel drive trucks. Inside the Clarence Bretzlaff Hall, the celebration continued with musicians livening the atmosphere until the late hours of the night. The sheer size of the crowd dwarfed those from the previous evening.

Saturday’s music lineup featured Quyon’s Gail Gavan and friends, Orleans folk singer Yvan Petit, capped off by Ottawa Valley’s own Riley New Band as the headliner.

On Sunday, the party kept going with all sorts of food and drink to consume and all the same vendor stands to visit. Folks put their best and biggest pumpkins and vegetables to the test during the pumpkin show.

But the main event of the day was the afternoon parade, which took place on the street near the T.C.R.A., stretching from Rte. 366, to Rte. 306 and chemin Maynard. Open to anyone willing to participate, it featured hundreds of people rolling in their cars and ATV’s as well as pedestrians decked out in Bavarian regalia walking down the street on Rte. 366.

The festival closed with an afternoon of live music and socializing inside the Clarence Bretzlaff Hall, with entertainment provided by the Ottawa Rube Band and the Schuhplatter Bavarian Dancers.

According to Bretzlaff, who has been the festival’s President since 1998, the event is the biggest one in the town every year and has consistently grown from one edition to the next, especially in the last decade.

“This was the most well attended Oktoberfest we’ve had in a while,” she said.

With 12 board members and around 100 volunteers helping organize the event, Bretzlaff noted that it takes a tremendous amount of work to put on.

However, having helped organize the event for so many years, she said contributing to the community in such a significant way makes her blessed and amazed when she reflects on how much she’s helped the town achieve with the festival.

“It’s a personal sense of satisfaction to be able to bring together all of these people, all of the volunteers, year after year,” she said. “And the people come and it brings enjoyment to you to think look what we have done in a small rural community. We really have accomplished something and we keep accomplishing.”

Rainwater Whiskey front man Thomas Watson rocks the crowd with a cover of the Zac Brown Band’s “Chicken Fried”.

Mayor of Chichester Donald Gagnon, Connie Mercier and Oliver Saunders get together for a group photo on Friday evening.

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