Speak Out: Gaithersburg's Oktoberfest Will Be Bigger. Will It Be Better?

UPDATED—Gaithersburg’s Oktoberfest is less than a month a way and city officials are promising it will be bigger and better than last year’s. 

The date is set for Sunday, Oct. 13 and 150 vendors are lined up this year, according to Carolyn Crosby, a senior recreation program supervisor with the City of Gaithersburg.

Held for the past 21 years in Kentlands, Oktoberfest will expand from its traditional locale on Kentlands Green toward Market Square and Main Street. The festival will also add three more stages for music.

A map is posted at the city’s website.

Crosby said that this year’s expanded version of Oktoberfest

fest would cost $50,000 to produce, though about half of the expenses would be offset by sponsorships and vendor fees.

Comparatively, last year’s festival—which fetched an estimated 18,000 attendees—cost $25,000 to produce. The city and the Kentlands Citizens Assembly split the expense, Crosby said.

Back in January, Gaithersburg’s Arts and Events Division Chief Denise Kayser proposed getting rid of Oktoberfest for a summer arts and wine festival—an idea that elicited mixed reactions from city officials and residents.

Lost charm and commercialization were some of the concerns with Oktoberfest, Patch noted in March. On the flip side, Germantown’s Oktoberfest on Oct. 5 will be held in Clarksburg. In 2012, an event organizer told Germantown Patch that the event had outgrown Ridge Road Park in Germantown.

Still, the fact didn’t sit so well with a North Potomac Patch reader, who complained:

"It's bad [enough] that Germantown no longer has an Oktoberfest—let's keep the one we have left," Harold DeWeese wrote.

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>>>Speak out: What are you looking forward to at this year’s Oktoberfest?

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Editor's Note: This story has been updated since it was originally published Sept. 18 to correct several errors. Last year's Oktoberfest drew 18,000 people. The festival has added three more stages.