Oktoberfest At The Sonoma Moose
- PostEagle
- October 15, 2014
- Uncategorized
- 0 Comments
The Moose Lodge in Sonoma staged a two day Oktoberfest the weekend of September 20. On Saturday Polka Power and the Bajuk Trio alternated shifts from noon thru 8pm. And on Sunday Showcase performed in the evening.
We attended on Saturday, unable to join the crowd on Sunday. Traffic in the California metropolitan areas is terrible, but the travel delays on Saturday were horrendous. Our trip to Sonoma is usually 2 hours. On this day it took over 3 hours. We heard the same story from everyone who attended, and, unfortunately, from many folks who abandoned their Oktoberfest plans because the traffic delays were untenable. The major roads leading to & fro Sonoma were partially closed causing long delays and some event was happening in San Francisco that clogged the arteries heading north in the direction of Sonoma. The result was that we lost half of the audience who had prepaid. And yet Claude King travelled 350 miles from Tehachapi to catch the San Francisco Oktoberfest on Friday and this event on Saturday, returning to Tehachapi late Saturday night – now there’s a fan!
The musicians were not granted absolution from the traffic gods, so the event started with a mix of musicians from the two bands. Luckily they all perform with each other, so the music was fantastic from start to end. The Moose served traditional Oktoberfest food (wurst, potato salad, sauerkraut, and red cabbage), which was quite tasty. We had a dancing crowd who filled the floor for the entire event. Stefan Kochishan, sax player extraordinaire, clad in lederhosen, provided vocals in German with a little English thrown in, giving the event a distinctive Oktoberfest feel.
We are awash in Oktoberfests from mid-September until the end of October. There are multiple events going on every weekend. On this weekend the Gruber Family Band performed in Jackson, Ca. The Internationals with the Chico Bavarian Band performed at the Oktoberfest in San Francisco. And AlpinersUSA performed at the Los Gatos Brewery Oktoberfest. And there’s much more ahead.
In photos:
Inge & KC Williams looking sharp
Roy & Gisla recovered from Mt. Angel’s Oktoberfest
