2 hours ago, Lazarus said:

It's like everyone the media interviewed this weekend remarked on the "shade".  Since somehow 50-foot trees create more shade than 350-foot skyscrapers. 

 

Once we achieve our dream of hosting a multi-week ska festival at Stricker's Grove, you'll see the benefits of a hosting an event in an idyllic setting. 

Columbus news would. All they talk about is weather-related stuff.

The new location offered significantly more space to spread out, and yes, significantly more shade from trees, especially in the section of the park between the Purple People Bridge and the Big Mac Bridge. The location change has totally transformed this from a festival that I wanted to avoid to something that's actually pleasant to attend. Having a different location for all of the Chamber events also gives each of the events more of their own unique identities -- when Taste and Oktoberfest were both on Fifth Street, they both had that "generic crowded downtown festival" feel. 

It's about time! I have skipped Zinzinnati Oktoberfest for the last decade or so because the location is kinda boring.  So happy this finally moved down to the park. It just feels better down there, and makes me want to stay much longer.

23 hours ago, OliverHazardPerry said:

Trees provide a cooling effect beyond just getting you out of the direct sun. Buildings and hard surfaces like concrete/asphalt absorb the thermal energy of the sun and create a minor oven-like condition known as the urban heat island. Vegetation like trees and grass reduce the urban heat island effect by preventing that thermal energy from being absorbed by the hard surfaces. Also, trees further cool an area by a process known as transpiration cooling. Water is released from tree leaves into the surrounding air which slightly lowers the air temperature when the water changes from a liquid state to a vapor.

 

The media isn't going to spend the time explaining this in a 45 second interview about a local festival's new location.

 

Yeah there is this phenomenon called "the woods".  If you go hiking or mountain biking in the woods on a 90F+ degree day it is significantly cooler in the woods.  Sawyer Point is not an enchanted forest.  The Serpentine Wall is a south-facing concrete edifice which people generally avoided throughout the event.  Also, I was completely turned-off by the sound of...country music being played by soggy bar bands on the Serpentine Wall stage.  The sound wafted over to Newport.  Maybe it's just payback for all of the lousy cover bands who regularly play to disinterested crowds on the Newport riverfront festival stage. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21 hours ago, GCrites said:

Columbus news would. All they talk about is weather-related stuff.

 

Local News is just weather now.  You know who really, really seems to care about the weather (and shade, apparently?)?  People who never go outside. 

 

It's like, there was a big controversy in Cincinnati back in the early 80s over what would be built at Fountain Square South since there was so much fear that a building taller than the Carew Tower would doom Fountain Square to constant darkness (The Genius of Waters would go goth).  The historic Albee Theater was torn down in anticipation of a monster skyscraper but instead we got the modest Westin Hotel out of concern for sunlight on the square.  But Fifth St. itself - home of Oktoberfest for decades - is always in the shade. 

 

There is not 100% shade, or anything approaching it, on the riverfront, and certainly not The Serpentine Wall. 

Everyone has responded favorably about the move to Sawyer Point except Jake. Just about the last person's opinion I would trust on something like this, so I think it was a huge success.

This year was great. It's not just the shade and the trees and grass, but the giant tents with seating and tables so you could actually sit down and hang for while to enjoy your drinks. There is also a playground nearby and open space to play around for kids which is a huge improvement over the street festival setups in years past. The closest thing to a 'park' along 5th street is P&Gs gardens where kids have nothing to do and is a weirdly chained off space anyway.

 

Normally Oktoberfest and Taste are one lap events for me, you go end to end and maybe grab one or two items then leave. This year we hung out for hours and I bought more beer than I have in years past because it was just more comfortable and there was more adjacent things to keep the group busy and entertained. 

4 minutes ago, ucgrady said:

This year was great. It's not just the shade and the trees and grass, but the giant tents with seating and tables so you could actually sit down and hang for while to enjoy your drinks. There is also a playground nearby and open space to play around for kids which is a huge improvement over the street festival setups in years past. The closest thing to a 'park' along 5th street is P&Gs gardens where kids have nothing to do and is a weirdly chained off space anyway.

 

Did they not have these things in years past?  That's disappointing--my little Oktoberfest at the German Family Society just outside of Akron has had all those things for almost a decade.  I've described it as the most family-friendly beer festival I've ever been to.  For the past several years, I've taken the kids on all three days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday).  It's definitely better with the massive tents for seating (especially if many of the tents are arranged so they're within view of any of the music and dance groups), and play spaces for the kids (playground, swing, even soccer goals if the traffic is light enough that they don't use the soccer fields for parking, though they often do need to use those fields for that).  We had a barrel-train pulled by a tractor for the kids on the Sunday, carnival games, all kinds of stuff to keep kids busy.  I think I've been spoiled here.

I didn't like the idea of the Columbus Oktoberfest moving out to the state fairgrounds because it sounded so much hokier than having it in the city but the amenities described in this thread are perhaps why it was done. And why there haven't been massive complaints about it.

1 hour ago, ucgrady said:

Normally Oktoberfest and Taste are one lap events for me, you go end to end and maybe grab one or two items then leave. This year we hung out for hours and I bought more beer than I have in years past because it was just more comfortable and there was more adjacent things to keep the group busy and entertained. 

 

I heard that they sold out of the entire weekend's supply of Coke products and bottled water by mid-day Saturday and had to make some emergency runs to get more. Now, I'm sure this was partially due to the higher than normal temperatures this year, but probably also due to higher attendance and more people sticking around for longer.

 

There is a link to take a survey at the festival's website, if you'd like to provide any feedback.

On 9/24/2024 at 11:26 AM, Lazarus said:

 

Yeah there is this phenomenon called "the woods".  If you go hiking or mountain biking in the woods on a 90F+ degree day it is significantly cooler in the woods.  Sawyer Point is not an enchanted forest.  The Serpentine Wall is a south-facing concrete edifice which people generally avoided throughout the event.  Also, I was completely turned-off by the sound of...country music being played by soggy bar bands on the Serpentine Wall stage.  The sound wafted over to Newport.  Maybe it's just payback for all of the lousy cover bands who regularly play to disinterested crowds on the Newport riverfront festival stage. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You continue to spout off absolute nonsense on here.

 

1. The serpentine walls were crowded the entire weekend between people watching different sports in the one section with a big projection tv and people listening to music/watching the events in the other section that had the main stage.  There were also plenty of people sitting on parts of the wall eating and drinking.  

 

2. They play country music, classic rock, and tons of other US music at the real Oktoberfest in Munich.  They don't just play German music there , it's a mixture of both just like at the festival here. 

They need to move all the festivals to Sawyer Point.  Get them off the street and into an area that is bigger and much better suited to host events.  

19 hours ago, Cincy513 said:

1. The serpentine walls were crowded the entire weekend between people watching different sports in the one section with a big projection tv and people listening to music/watching the events in the other section that had the main stage. 

 

No, it wasn't.  I bicycled over the L&N and Taylor-Southgate bridges a total of six times between Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Those times were all between 12 noon and 4pm.  There wasn't a significant crowd on the wall at any point and in fact I recall seeing a band (the country band) playing to absolutely nobody.  Saturday was generally much more crowded than Friday (hardly anyone was at the event during the day on Friday).  There were large crowds at the Reds games so no doubt many of those people walked over to the festival afterward. 

 

Also, if the event had been held this upcoming weekend, mud wrestling would be on the menu:

 

The whole reason why city streets were first paved with brick and then asphalt was so they would dry quickly after rainfall.  No hope of that this weekend at Sawyer Point.  Crowds would be tiny, those who would go would be walking around in wet socks and shoes, and the vendors would lose a ton of money.

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Lazarus said:

 

No, it wasn't.  I bicycled over the L&N and Taylor-Southgate bridges a total of six times between Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Those times were all between 12 noon and 4pm.  There wasn't a significant crowd on the wall at any point and in fact I recall seeing a band (the country band) playing to absolutely nobody.  Saturday was generally much more crowded than Friday (hardly anyone was at the event during the day on Friday).  There were large crowds at the Reds games so no doubt many of those people walked over to the festival afterward. 

 

Also, if the event had been held this upcoming weekend, mud wrestling would be on the menu:

 

The whole reason why city streets were first paved with brick and then asphalt was so they would dry quickly after rainfall.  No hope of that this weekend at Sawyer Point.  Crowds would be tiny, those who would go would be walking around in wet socks and shoes, and the vendors would lose a ton of money.

 

 

 

 

Second photo was from Friday afternoon btw

With the damage that was recently done to Sawyer Point by the fire, it seems like some money is going to need to be invested into rebuilding at least a small part of it. Given that Oktoberfest is likely to be there for at least a few years, I'm wondering if it would make sense to start building some amount of permanent infrastructure there to minimize the amount of temporary booths/portable toilets/etc. that would need to be brought in each year?