It's Not Oktoberfest, But Breckenridge Restaurants Partner With Town For oktober-FEAST
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - While Munich's iconic Oktoberfest has been canceled, the town of Breckenridge has found a way to celebrate.
"Oktoberfest in Breckenridge is known as one of the largest street parties in the Rocky Mountains. This year obviously we had to change things with larger group gatherings being limited so we took the celebration specifically to the restaurants," said Austyn Dineen, director of communications for the Breckenridge Tourism Office.
The traditional Oktoberfest is postponed until 2021, but Friday kicked off, what the town of Breckenridge has dubbed. October-FEAST. More than 10 restaurants have partnered with the town to create multi-course themed meals, over two back-to-back weekends (this past weekend and Oct. 2-4). It's a celebration that Dineen says wouldn't be complete without a stein.
"When we started to really figure out what Oktoberfest would look like in the coronavirus pandemic, the stein was the big thing we couldn't miss. We hear people who have collected steins since day one and they would never miss a piece for their collection," she said.
Christy and Jim Swoll haven't missed a year and on Friday they joined others in line to buy their 31st stein.
"Every year, every single year!" They couple said smiling and holding up their new steins.
According to Dineen, this this year's stein is an ode to 2020.
"The stein this year was designed by our local artist Stefan bast and it depicts an interracial couple actually cheersing the great outdoors," she continued, "We are very, very lucky. Sixty miles of town trails here, and massive open space here? It feels pretty safe ... and that outdoor space has kept us, frankly, sane during this time. So it felt like it was a right place to go ahead and cheers our outdoors and celebrate."
To find out more, or to make a reservation to pick up your own stein, click here.
