Josh Imhof | staff writer|

Despite cold weather and some rainy days, Pittsburghers came out in droves to the city’s first Oktoberfest over the past two weeks.

Local food vendors surrounded a large blue and white tent placed in the heart of Market Square. Attendees sat at long wooden tables holding jumbo sized pretzels and mugs. Each evening, the warm lights of chandeliers illuminated guests as artists played live music from the stage behind them. On the Roberto Clemente Bridge, a 60-foot Ferris wheel sat among a sea of carnival games, giving riders a birds-eye view of the Downtown landscape.

The festivities were organized by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and Flyspace Productions, who collaborate to organize other events such as Picklesburgh and Light Up Night.

Jennifer Owen, owner of Flyspace, stood in front of the stage greeting guests and answering questions throughout the day.

“We love the idea of bringing people together, and it’s really important for us. We love that this is an opportunity for us to do that,” she said. “It’s been amazing interacting with people here.”

Despite being a Pittsburgh-centric festival, both organizations wanted to make sure it stayed true to the original festival in Munich.

“We did a ton of research to be as authentic as possible and not just have it be a beer festival, because there’s so much more to Oktoberfest than just drinking beers,” Owen said.

To achieve authenticity, the companies collaborated with the Teutonia Mänorchor, a German club located in East Allegheny, also known as Deutschtown. The club helped them create events for the festival including the feats of strength competitions, which featured steinholding, barrel rolling and keg-lift racing.

Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s president and CEO Jeremy Waldrup showed up to the event wearing a Lederhosen and an alpine hat.

“We’re really keen to see more residents down here, just given the pandemic and the reduction in the demand for office,” he said. “We want to give people a reason to get into Downtown Pittsburgh. So that’s why we do these events. It creates community.”

The pandemic drastically changed the Downtown Pittsburgh environment, with many people opting to work from home, even after the lock down ended. It is estimated that only 70% of pre-pandemic office workers have returned, Waldrup said.

He said the festival was a great opportunity for people to come back and support establishments that had lost business during the pandemic.

“We intentionally don’t have a lot of food as part of this event. We want folks to go to some of these restaurants and patronize them,” he said. “We hope to do more things like this.”

Despite these setbacks, visitor traffic returned to 100% of what it was pre-pandemic in July, with over 1.7 million people visiting Downtown, largely in part due to Picklesburgh, according to Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s website.

“You really need to make Downtown a place that people want to be in,” Waldrup said.

He hopes events like these will give people a reason to want to come back. They can also be an introduction to the city for people visiting for the first time.

Gary Chimeri, a Long Island, New York resident, was in Pittsburgh for the Steelers game. He found out about the event after seeing people in Oktoberfest attire and decided to check it out.

“I’ve been trying to pick one city a year to go visit and watch the Dallas Cowboys on the road, and here we are in Pittsburgh. Everybody’s very friendly,” he said. “It’s a little different than New York, but in a good way.”

Chimeri decided to compete in the stein holding competition, an Oktoberfest staple that challenges contestants to hold a large mug of beer in front of them for as long as possible. With a time of 3 minutes and 47 seconds, he won his heat.

“It seems that there’s a lot of energy. I almost want to go try and break the record,” he said. “Might have to use the left arm, though.”

Chimeri is part of a growing number of people visiting Pittsburgh from out of town. In 2023, more than 20.4 million visitors generated $6.4 billion for the local economy, according to VisitPittsburgh.

Owen said it was exciting to share these traditions with non-German guests, as well as to celebrate those who do have Deutsch background.

“We knew that there’s a lot of people in Pittsburgh that have a German heritage of some kind. But the number of people that actually are from Germany or from European countries that go to the festival every year at home, they have been really awesome to see,” she said.

The organizers said that given the success of this year’s Oktoberfest, they hope to bring it back again next year.

“We love our rivers. We love those bridges, giving people a unique experience that gets them motivated to come down,” Waldrup said. “We want to help make the city a vibrant place that everybody would be proud of.”