Where to celebrate Oktoberfest in the U.S.

Dubbed as America's largest Oktoberfest, the event in Cincinnati clocks in at more than 700,000 people. Organizers say 80,500 bratwursts and 702 pounds of Limburger cheese are consumed during the four-day festival, which is free to enter. The 2023 event (spelled with Zs because, we don’t know, beer makes you sleepy?) moved to a new home, a Bavarian village set up on Cincinnati’s 5th Street.

The rise of Oktoberfest in the Mile High City didn't spring out of any German ancestry. It's just that Denver boasts a serious beer scene—at least 150 breweries and counting. While there's lots of stein-raising during the city's two-weekend event in the Ballpark District, there's also a costume contest, stein-holding competition, a "long dog derby" and a serious game of keg bowling, a thing we wish existed all year.

While the desert might not initially sound like a spot to transport yourself to Germany, Tempe's Four Peaks Oktoberfest boasts a half-century of tradition. There are regular sausages and steins offerings and many events like the Running of the Brats. Proceeds go to a program to send Tempe kids abroad to its sister cities, including the not-desert town of Regensburg, Germany.

This tiny Bavarian-themed town south of Portland is downright overrun with what's billed as the largest folk festival in the northwest. The town of just 3,300 people fills with 50 food booths, five biergartens and events from a 5K to an "Oktoberfest Olympics," with six pretty darned folky challenges to complete.

In 1996, a proclamation from Germany made this celebration the first event outside of Munich to be an official Oktoberfest. The "Michigan's Little Bavaria" event has been going strong since, with a four-day event. Ten bucks get you entry to lots of food, beer, bands and, most gloriously, wiener-dog racing.

This town at the foothills of the Appalachian mountains looks straight-up transported from Bavaria—or, at the very least, a super nice section of Epcot. The whole look resulted from an entire makeover in 1969 by an artist who returned from World War II with some serious love of German architecture. So, of course, Helen hosts its own Oktoberfest, believed to be the longest-running event of its kind in the country. The celebration is held on weekends over an entire month, and visitors to town can stay in viking heaven, otherwise known as the Valhalla Resort Hotel.

The family made famous in the songs-can-beat-Nazis movie The Sound of Music settled at this picturesque lodge in 1950 that now holds an Oktoberfest every fall. In addition to beer, food, and music, there’s a stein-holding competition hosted in partnership with the U.S. Steinholding Association, meaning all that stein-holding you’ve been doing can finally be officially recognized.

Fredericksburg's nickname as the Polka Capital of Texas (suck it, Schulenburg) makes this a fine spot for a three-day Oktoberfest with lots of oompah music. If all those accordions aren't getting you out to Texas Hill Country, you probably should also skip the Hauptstrasse Chicken Dance, where spectators line up for, yup, the chicken dance.

The town of Leavenworth battled back from its Dust Bowl and Great Depression days by remaking itself as an alpine village. But this isn’t just another Oktoberfest in a faux Bavarian town; organizers encourage niceties through its “Give A Schnitzel” program, urging folks to take care of the environment and “be nice, patient and take your time,” words we can all toast with a stein (ideally from Leavenworth’s Doghaus Brewery).

Started back in 1961, the event in La Crosse is one of the nation's oldest. All that history gave organizers the courage to dub this event Oktoberfest, USA. Expect all the regular fall German festival activities, including naming members to the Oktoberfest Royal Family, an honor for those who can chug steins the quickest. Just kidding, you have to be a local and "someone of good character that is well-respected," so tough luck, beer guzzlers.