My Name Is Jasper

Locust

Tear the veil, the lies derail

Purity ever will prevail

Trumpets sound the shattered crown

Halos of truth now they surround

The charade comes down

Locust – Phil Demmel & Rob Flynn (225)

It's Mid-October. Julie and I head over to the small Ontario city of Kitchener for what has become an annual tradition: The Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest. The next 2 days will be filled with oom-pah-pah music, pseudo-German outfits, and Canadian beers served in plastic cups. Yes, it is a quite a bit removed from the original Wiesn (226), but it is going to be a lot of fun!

I have only been to the original Oktoberfest once in my life: Together with a group MACH's (227)  back in 2009. Let me come straight to the point: If you have never been to Munich Oktoberfest, you have to go, and you have to go as soon as you can.

Yes, you'll have the unglamorous morning-after drunks struggling with gravity as they attempt to make their way home, but apart from that the atmosphere in the city during those last weeks in September is astonishing. That's right. September. Well mostly September: the festival ends the first weekend of October. Is your mind blown?

There were about 10 to 15 of us, and a couple of the German ladies – Kassandra and Caro - were kind enough to host everyone in their apartments. They had even secured a bike for each of us to explore the city. Mine had crooked wheels; Menno's I believe had no brakes. It was good fun.

What you need to know when going to the Munich Oktoberfest, is that your ticket has a very specific time on it. Miss it and your ticket is invalid. Getting into one of the Bier tents is actually a pretty hectic process. But once you're in, well, I don't master the English language enough to do it justice. It is a lot of fun!

The Munich punctuality when it comes to ticket times was something Tom kept reminding me of when we were driving up to Kitchener for our first Canadian Oktoberfest back in 2012. "We have to be at the tent right at 7 Jasper!" He repeated once more as we were parking at the B&B, "We can't take the risk of not getting in."

At the time I was only living in Toronto for a few weeks. Tom was my roommate, and one of the first things he told me once I moved in was "There's this town where a lot of people with a German heritage live, and they celebrate Oktoberfest every year. They do it in October though... Weird, but we have to go!"

Many of the people from Kitchener-Waterloo indeed have German roots. The first German settlers had originally named it Berlin, but as the Great War broke out in Europe in 1914, and throughout the commonwealth a strong resentment grew for all things German, the city decided to change its name. They never forgot their heritage though and throughout modern day Kitchener, there are still permanent Bier Halls, shops where you can buy lederhosen and dirndls, and you'll encounter more than 1 person with a German last name. During the annual Oktoberfest – the largest in the world outside of Germany actually – these remnants are blown up to ridiculous proportions, as every restaurant and bar in town temporarily is rebranded as 'authentic German Bier Hall' (228).

 At exactly 6:55PM the taxi dropped Tom and I off at the Bingemans Beer Hall, which was basically a very large tent on a deserted parking lot somewhere outside of the city. The look of disappointed on a lederhosen clad Tom's face spoke volumes. The venue was empty, the band was still setting up, and staff were finishing hoisting up Molson Canadian flags. Sure this time the Canadian beer's logo was printed on a field of blue and white diamonds (229), but that still doesn't make the beer taste any better, let alone Bavarian.