Crowds reaching numbers between 150,000 and 200,000 could come out to this weekend’s 38th annual Oktoberfest in Tempe, according to an event official.
The three-day festival is being held at the Tempe Beach Park, and will coincide with the final weekend of the 200th celebration in Germany, where Oktoberfest originally started.
Tempe Sister City, a nonprofit student exchange organization, and the city of Tempe are organizing the free event.
Larry West, event coordinator for Oktoberfest and volunteer for Tempe Sister City, said he thinks this year’s turnout will be high despite the city’s dry lake.
“We have a phrase here at Tempe Sister City, ‘Who needs water if you have beer?’” West said.
There will be new food vendors including Long Wong’s, Big Belly BBQ and Island’s Noodles for the vegetarians, West said. Money raised at Oktoberfest goes toward a city student exchange program.
Dick Neuheisel, president and founder of Tempe Sister City, said 33 juniors and seniors in Tempe high schools are sent to sister cities around the world for six weeks.
“We’ve paid for almost 700 students (since 1972),” Neuheisel said.
Students get sent to eight cities in countries such as Ireland, Sweden and New Zealand, and bring back their “sister” or “brother” to live with them for five weeks during the summer.
Doug Royse, a volunteer for Tempe Sister City, says the students who come to Arizona from the sister cities get a “culture exchange.”
“We take them to Disneyland, Diamondback games and the Grand Canyon,” Royse said.
Along with the student exchange program, Tempe Sister City has made an annual “Making a World of Difference” Award ceremony.
The fourth annual ceremony dinner is at Tempe Center for the Arts at 6 p.m. Thursday evening.
Among the three recipients is ASU graduate Christa Brelsford, who is being honored for her volunteer work in Haiti with a community literacy program.
She was in Haiti when the Port-au-Prince earthquake hit in January. She was caught in a collapsed house and lost her right leg.
Jane Neuheisel, chairwoman of Making a World of Difference, picks the recipients based on their extraordinary experiences and ideas that change the world.
“We just read about [Brelsford], and Haiti was and is very much in need now,” Jane Neuheisel said. “She’s a pretty amazing person.”
Since Haiti, Brelsford has started Christa’s Angels, an organization that raises money for those who helped Brelsford and her brother escape.
The organization has been able to build and staff a school in Haiti.
“She went through a terrible tragedy, survived it and started a foundation that continues to help,” Dick Neuheisel said.
Oktoberfest starts at 10 a.m. Saturday with events for the family and adult events at night.
Nine beer gardens, or beer service areas, will be set up around the festival grounds, and drink prices will range from $4 to $6. A giant carnival will also be there, West said.
Two hundred and fifty security personnel along with Tempe Police will be on hand to manage drinking.
Discount Cab is partnering for the event for the Safe Ride Home program.
They will be giving out $2-off coupons for those who need rides home.
“We’re going to have warm days, delightful nights and exceptionally cold beer,” West said.
Reach the reporter at mpareval@asu.edu
