Brett Thoms
Ladysmith October 1, 2022
Oktoberfest Ladysmith, the annual celebration of German heritage in the Pontiac, was held in Throne last weekend.
The event included a parade, various musical performances, vendors, German cultural activities like dancing, a horse shoe tournament and plenty of German food.
“We have planned a little smaller event this year. We had less volunteers and it wasn’t really economical to have a truck pull,” explained Lorraine Bretzlaff, president of Oktoberfest Ladysmith.
However despite the downsized event, Bretzlaff was impressed with the turn out.
“I’m surprised it’s going very well. We didn’t expect to have
as many attendees because of the truck pull not being here. But so far it’s been very good,” said Bretzlaff, saying that attendees were enjoying the atmosphere and food.
“We’ve got lots of German food. Lots of homemade sauerkraut, meatballs, there’s mashed potatoes and great breakfast, lunch, dinner,” said Bretzlaff.
A club called GTEV Maple Leaf-Almrausch Schuhplattlers based in Ottawa, which provided entertainment in the form of traditional Barvarian music and dance.
Much of the dances revolved around symbolizing a profession that would have been practiced by 19th century Germans. This included dances that acted out a blacksmithing ritual, a mining ritual and a butcher ritual, among other jobs.
“We show you what we did,” explained Stephen Volkmer, president of the Club. “Because this is very old stuff from the 1800s. It started off in the old days when people would come into a town and they would be, let’s say, the butcher, or the baker, because they often were not ever in every town. So they would come in and they would use these riffs, a specific tune, that they would know and therefore everybody would know they were in town”
These traditions then evolved into the folk traditions that characterize Oktoberfest.
Another big part of the performance showed off old courtship rituals based around mimicking a bird called the auerhahn.
“The boys are imitating this bird trying to attract a mate,” said Heidi Rausch, the dance lead for the group. “Because they work so hard all week when they‘d have the barn dances and then try to show off and attract the girls.”
There was also a big effort in recruiting the audience to participate in the dances, and while there were some takers, “ it wasn’t a dancing crowd,” according to Rausch.
Both Volkmer and Rausch said that the crowd at Ladysmith was great though, and that “the celebration of German culture is strong in the area.
“We’ve danced for many crowds that just kind of are there but in Ladysmith they actually like to see us there and you can feel it,” concluded Rausch.
