German-American Fest

Polka Floyd closed out the 45th annual German-American Festival last night, drawing a large enough crowd to extend the festival after hours.

The festival opened with a parade and fireworks on Friday and featured bands such as the Rhinelanders and Holzhacker Buam Schuhplattlergruppe throughout the weekend.

"One of our members said last year if we hired Polka Floyd that he'd pay for it," festival chairman Tim Pecsenye said. "We didn't hold him to that, but we had a great time and decided to bring them back again. It's an opportunity to do something different."

The festival is always looking to add something different, such as the Masskrugstemmen this year.

"A lot of events have a genesis of a few guys sitting around having a few beers and saying ‘we should do something like this,'" Pecsenye said. "We've talked about it through the years and finally decided to do it."

The event simply requires contestants to keep their arm fully extended while holding a one-liter stein of beer for as long as they can. The festival also features the Swiss event called Steinstossen where male contestants throw a 137-pound stone and female contestants throw a 75-pound stone.

The GAF is run by the GAF Society, which is the umbrella organization incorporating the seven cultural societies that sponsor the festival. It has been considered a 501(c)(3)charitable organization since 1971.

"The biggest goal is that we raise enough money to keep our Swiss and German cultural center functional and alive so we have a place for Swiss and German societies to meet," Pecsenye said.

The GAF Society owns the Oak Shade Grove property in Oregon, Ohio where the festival takes place.

"The grounds we have are so important," Pecsenye said. "The festival takes place on 12 wooded acres. There are beautiful trees and nice surroundings with plenty of places to sit."

The first GAF was a two-day event held at Raceway Park in 1966.

"The idea was to help spur interest in the German and Swiss societies by getting them together with a mass picnic," Pecsenye said. "That grew to having a German day, and that grew into a two-day festival in 1966."

The festival moved to the Lucas County Recreation Center in 1974 before moving to Oak Shade Grove in 1986.

One of the more popular draws to the festival is the wide array of German food and beer available.

"About four years ago we said, ‘what's different about the Germans than all the other heritages?' Obviously that rolls around the beer, because Germans are known for having excellent beer," Pecsenye said. "We moved towards more imported German beers. That's been a great dynamic from both a business and an ethnic standpoint."

The festival features several beers from German breweries such as Warsteiner, Spaten, Franziskaner, Paulaner and Hofbräu.

"We probably have more beers than the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany," Pecsenye said. "You can come to the festival here and not spend $2,400 flying to Munich. We're allowing people to taste some great product. I don't care which brand it is. German beers are great beers."

There was also plenty of German cuisine to go around, including schnitzel, bratwurst and sauerkraut balls.

"My house smells like a gin mill in July because I'm grinding up juniper berries for the sauerkraut," Pecsenye said.

Pecsenye may be up to his neck in juniper berries next year with the possible inclusion of an event called the sauerkraut stomp at the next festival.

"Little things like that help us improve the festival and make it more fun," Pecsenye said. "The biggest thing is making it more ethnic. Our bands and all the entertainment are really ethnic. We work hard to make sure we portray our German and Swiss cultural heritage. Whether it's food or music or anything else, everything here has something to do with our heritage."