HOW MUCH CHICKEN DANCING... can a fan of chicken dancing take? This isn't a chicken-or-the-egg type of question, and it probably doesn't have a hard-and-fast answer. Rather, the question to ask yourself, if you're an Oktoberfest aficionado, is this: Is just one round of the Chicken Dance enough? Or would you like to take a few spins, waggling your wings, on the dance floor, over a couple of different weekends? That can only happen when an Oktoberfest celebration is a lengthier one, and not a party that wraps up in an afternoon or even a weekend. And while the annual whoop-di-doo at Big Bear Lake has been on the larger side, Oktoberfest up the mountain is about to grow even bigger, or Big-Bear-ier, if you like. For the 2018 run has been extended to encompass...
NINE WEEKENDS... in all, making the late-summer, early-fall stein-tacular pretty easy to schedule, if you want to make it but find you have too much going on during September and October. Actually, add November to that list, for the final 2018 date is Saturday, Nov. 3. The Chicken Dances, oompah music, savory brats, and beer-sipping opportunities rev up on Saturday, Sept. 8, making this a true two-monther of a to-do. On the menu? The biergarten will include 22 beers, and if you're hoping that a Munich classic like Paulaner will be part of the roster, you're in luck. A trio of bands'll be on the stage over seven of the nine weekends, and, indeed, they're from Germany. Knockwurst and struedel are two other favorites of the decades-old festivity, as are the contests that flower, like edelweiss, each weekend. It's one of...
THE BEST-KNOWN... of the Oktoberbashes, here in Southern California and beyond, and it is getting ever gargantuan-er in the weeks just ahead. The upshot? Better plan your lederhosen-based outfits pronto. And if you're wondering how big the Big Bear Oktoberfest was before, the 2018 party is growing by two new dates. So there you have it, Chicken Dancers of SoCal; get excited and start flapping your wings ahead of all of this Big Bear brats-and-brews big-a-tude.
