Ladysmith hosted the 39th annual Oktoberfest over the weekend celebrating German culture and its history in the area, and this year, for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the festivities ran for three days.
“This is more in line with what we did pre-COVID,” said Jennifer Mielke, a member of the organizing committee. “We wanted to bring the festival back to what the original people that started it in the 80s knew.”
People began arriving on Friday for the opening events and to set up camp. At the festival, there were three fields people could park in to camp for the weekend. Throughout the weekend, the fields were packed.
Lorraine Bretzlaff has been working with the festival for 29 years and spent 24 of them as the president. She said that the fields haven’t been full like that for years.
According to Bretzlaff and Mielke, the Ladysmith event is the biggest Oktoberfest in the Outaouais.
“We’re the largest Oktoberfest in the Outaouais,” Mielke said. “The other festivals are contained within a restaurant or a one-day event.”
One of the big reasons that the Ladysmith festival is so big is because of the German roots in the community. Mielke said that the region was settled by German people sometime around the mid-1800s.
This year, the organizing committee decided to spread it out over three days again to make space for events the community wanted to see make a comeback. The truck pull was one of these events, which Mielke said regularly draws a big crowd.
“It’s something that people in the region really enjoy seeing,” Mielke said. “And the parade is something that brings the community together, like local residents and businesses.”
This year, the parade and traditional German dancers were back on Sunday. The parade featured local businesses and organizations, as well as classic cars and youth floats.
“I have this joke that it’s the only time of year where there’s a traffic jam in Ladysmith, and that’s because of the parade,” Mielke said.
Following the parade, a group of traditional German folk dancers from the Maple Leaf –Almrausch Club performed in the Clarence Bretzlaff building, named after Lorraine’s father.
Steve Volkmer is the director of the dance group, which has been around since 1964 when it merged with Maple Leaf soccer club. He said dancing is in his blood.
“I was born into it,” Volkmer said. “My parents started our dance group. Once I was old enough, I started dancing so I’ve been dancing now for 60 years.”
Volkmer said that having the dance group scheduled back on the Sunday means that they can make it to multiple performances. This year, Volkmer said there was also a band performing with them, something that added a lot to the event.
He said that the dances tell a story of German history, from work dances to dances where the men flirt with the women.
“A lot of energy goes into the dancing,” said Volkmer. “A lot of our dances depict work that was done, like a miners dance depicting everybody working on mines.”
Next year, the festival will be celebrating its 40th year.
“We have lots of ideas coming up, rolling around in our heads,” Bretzlaff said. “We’re going to put something special together because it’s the 40th.”
