Lifestyle

Who Boasts Best Oktoberfests in the United States?

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Tony Maples Photography

 

The time is here for brats and beer because what is the wurst is really the best. Among the lines of corny puns, Oktoberfest, everyone’s favorite fall festival, is upon us. In the Texas Hill Country, with many areas established first as German settlements, a good celebration is not hard to find. But, there are many other locations throughout the country that also put their spin on Oktoberfest.

Wallet Hub recently conducted a study that attempted to determine the best Oktoberfest celebrations in the country, along with other fun stats that will blow your mind. The study looked at the 100 largest U.S. cities, to determine how Oktober-friendly they were. Let’s take a look at the results and see where Texas cities stacked up.

Oktoberfest in the Motherland

Photo: Flickr/Mikey__S

Cincinnati, Ohio was ranked as the number one most Oktoberfest-friendly city. It’s high marks in the Traditions and Low-Cost categories easily put it at the top of the list. Rounding out the top five were: New York City (in second), New York, Portland, Oregon (third), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (fourth) and Denver, Colorado. Portland was also ranked first in the Traditions category.

The combination of a lack of tradition and a high cost was the common denominator when it came to the cities at the bottom of the list. San Bernardino, California holds the bragging rights as the least Oktoberfest-friendly city at number 100. Rounding out the bottom of the list were: Anchorage, Alaska (in 99th), North Las Vegas, Nevada, (at 98), St. Petersburg, Florida (sitting at 97), and Memphis, Tennessee at number 96.

Beer!

Photo: Flickr/46137

While any good Texan knows that nobody does Oktoberfest like the small towns that litter the Texas Hill Country, surprisingly the big cities in Texas didn’t fare as well as expected. Austin was the highest ranked big Texas city at number 41. Laredo was close behind at 42. Other Texas cities of note were Houston (at number 47), Dallas (at 48), San Antonio (in 69th place) and Lubbock (at 86).

The biggest Oktoberfest celebration is by far the one that takes place in the motherland, Munich, Germany. The festival brings in an estimated $1.58 billion stimulus to the city. Think you’re crafty by pilfering a collectible mug without paying? 96,000 mugs were confiscated at Munich in 2016. To give you a scale of the consumption of food and beer, 510,000 whole roast chickens were consumed and 1,610,000 gallons of beer were guzzled at Munich in 2016.