Speaker 1: We're pat and out can about two different locations around
Speaker 1: southern California to share fun things coming up this spooky
Speaker 1: holiday season. For this one, grab your beer steins and
Speaker 1: your leader hosen. Wait, maybe this is the wrong music.
Speaker 1: Let's do this music instead. There we go. Let's say
Speaker 1: good morning to the director of Big Bear Lakes Octoberfest.
Speaker 1: It's Monica Marini. Good morning, Monica, good morning. So it's
Speaker 1: not so HALLOWEENI but it's a staple of fall in
Speaker 1: the mountains of southern California. It's the Big Bear Octoberfest.
Speaker 1: And you're underway and finally all roads lead to Big Bear.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, we are full swing ahead.
Speaker 1: So you've been extended or you've extended the run of
Speaker 1: Octoberfest because the fires kind of put a monkey wrench
Speaker 1: in things this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a forgo a weekend early in our
Speaker 2: event because we run we start in September and run
Speaker 2: through early November. But this year we'll be adding November
Speaker 2: ninth on kind of as it do over weekend to
Speaker 2: make up for the weekend we lost.
Speaker 1: Okay, and as I mentioned, some of the roads had
Speaker 1: been closed. But now everything's open and you have full
Speaker 1: access to Big Bear the evacuation orders are down, the
Speaker 1: fires about out and all that that stuff, so it's
Speaker 1: sort of smooth sailing to get up there now.
Speaker 2: It is it is Highway thirty eight opened two days ago,
Speaker 2: and then you can still come up over Highway eighteen
Speaker 2: through Lucern and Highway eighteen through San Bordino. So getting
Speaker 2: up here is just as easy as it's ever been.
Speaker 2: And it's beautiful fall in the mountains, and we thank
Speaker 2: our firefighters for doing such a great job keeping fire
Speaker 2: out of Big Bear Valley.
Speaker 1: Absolutely So tell us Monica, what are people going to
Speaker 1: see and taste and do when they come out to
Speaker 1: the Big Bear October Fest.
Speaker 2: Well, they'll be doing some chicken dancing as you played
Speaker 2: our theme song, and then they'll be the'll have all
Speaker 2: the authentic German foods that brought the sauerkraut, the apple strudel.
Speaker 2: We also have three bands from Germany this year, direct
Speaker 2: from Germany. We're one of the few octoberfests that still
Speaker 2: brings bands over from Germany. But it lends a lot
Speaker 2: of authenticity to the event and there's nothing like hearing
Speaker 2: the brass section of the German band. We also have
Speaker 2: our contest log sign, steineholding, it's a lot of fun,
Speaker 2: good time.
Speaker 1: What's the log stein? What's that?
Speaker 2: So there's log sawn, which is a two person log
Speaker 2: sewing events, and then we have sawing sorry, and then
Speaker 2: we have steinholding, where folks can try to hold up
Speaker 2: the one leader sign as long as they can.
Speaker 1: Is it filled with beer?
Speaker 2: Unfortunately for the contest to know, because we get a
Speaker 2: lot of spillage. We don't like to waste good beer exactly.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned a bunch of food. What's your favorite
Speaker 1: food at the Octoberfest.
Speaker 2: I have to say the broad List. I love Broadways.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's authentic German broadwerst it.
Speaker 2: Is it is. We use a German butcher out of Glendale,
Speaker 2: so our brots are as authentic as they can get.
Speaker 2: A matter of fact, it's funny our German bands come
Speaker 2: over and they eat our food them. I was like,
Speaker 2: oh no, I hope it's good.
Speaker 1: They love it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I love it. And this isn't only an adult's only event.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know that at Octoberfest there's a lot
Speaker 1: of beer drinking, but there is some stuff for the
Speaker 1: kids too.
Speaker 2: There is we have a whole Munich midway section which
Speaker 2: has bounce houses and kids games, and on Sundays where
Speaker 2: Family Day and so on Sundays we do kids contests
Speaker 2: as well, a little kids steinholding, kind of mock steinholding,
Speaker 2: fretful toss.
Speaker 1: So yeah, okay. And for those who just can't tear
Speaker 1: themselves away from football on Sunday, a bear like Octoberfest
Speaker 1: is still the place to be, right.
Speaker 2: That's right. We've got two big eighty five inch screen
Speaker 2: TVs showing all the games.
Speaker 1: Love that, okay, So, Monica, are there places a lot
Speaker 1: of places to stay up there? Or can we do it?
Speaker 1: It's a day trip. Do you need to make a
Speaker 1: whole weekend out of it?
Speaker 2: You could do it either way. You can drive up
Speaker 2: for the day. You know, it's the beauty of southern California.
Speaker 2: You can go to the beach in the mountains all
Speaker 2: on one day. You can go to october Fest in
Speaker 2: the beach in one day, or you know, enjoy beautiful
Speaker 2: fall weekend and big Bear, it's gorgeous up here right now.
Speaker 2: The nights are nice and Chris, the daytime is you know,
Speaker 2: in the mid sixties, and so it's just it's a
Speaker 2: great chance to get away for a couple of days.
Speaker 2: All the lodging properties are open. There's plenty of places
Speaker 2: to stay. Just a it's a fun getaway.
Speaker 1: I love that. And do you need to buy tickets
Speaker 1: in advance? You can you get them when you get there.
Speaker 2: We do recommend folks pre purchase their tickets and they
Speaker 2: can do that at bigber Events dot Com. But we
Speaker 2: do recommend that, but we do always have tickets available
Speaker 2: at the gate.
Speaker 1: As well, okay, and then at Big Beer Events dot Com.
Speaker 1: You can also find out where lodge is and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: Yep, you can get hold of our lodging partners. You
Speaker 2: can find out all the times, what's going on, which
Speaker 2: bands are playing. We have on our outside stage. We
Speaker 2: have classic rock and country bands at play, so if
Speaker 2: you're a little tired of listening to German music, you
Speaker 2: can pop outside and listen to something a little bit
Speaker 2: more American.
Speaker 1: Okay, and Monica. If someone's thinking about coming up but
Speaker 1: it's kind of on the fence about it, what can
Speaker 1: you say that might get them over the hump and
Speaker 1: get them up to Big bear Lake, just.
Speaker 2: Get away from it, get away from the city, come
Speaker 2: on up, enjoy it with beautiful fall weather and fire
Speaker 2: is over. And gone. Well it's not over, but it's
Speaker 2: no longer a thread at all. To Big Bear. We
Speaker 2: have had no smoke for probably two or three weeks now,
Speaker 2: so it's perfect time to get away, okay.
Speaker 1: And it's is it Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 2: We are in October, we're Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and
Speaker 2: then when we go into November, we're just Saturdays.
Speaker 1: Okay. And again the place to go get all the
Speaker 1: information and get your tickets and all of that is.
Speaker 2: Big Bear Events dot Com.
Speaker 1: All right, we wish you much success, and I hope
Speaker 1: that the fires don't dampen the spirits because like you said,
Speaker 1: they're gone now, and so it's it's clear and let's
Speaker 1: get up there and support Big Bear.
Speaker 2: Like absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Monica Marine, appreciate your time this morning.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1: You got it