Buffalo Central Terminal to host 8th Annual Oktoberfest Celebration

Buffalo residents looking to celebrate the coming of fall in the traditional German fashion won't have to travel all the way to Munich to do so.
 
On September 25, the Buffalo Central Terminal will be hosting its 8th annual Buffalo Oktoberfest to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the traditional German festival.  The event will run from 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Admission will be $10 and half-priced admission will be available to all college students with a valid college ID.   Anyone willing to wear a traditional German costume (the dirndl for women and lederhosen or bundhosen for men) will receive free admission to the festival.
   
The event will be held in the main concourse of the Buffalo Central Terminal. Because it is taking place in such a large building with so many people joining in the celebration, this version of Oktoberfest will closely mimic the environment of the beer tents in Munich. "There is no better building in Buffalo to transform into a giant Munich biergarten than the Terminal," said Ryan Willard, Central Terminal Restoration Corporation Event Coordinator. The event is the largest of its kind in Western New York, drawing 3,000 to 4,000 participants every year.


   
The organizers of the event have gone to great lengths to ensure that the Buffalo celebration maintains the spirit and authenticity of Oktoberfest in Munich.  The event will feature authentic German beer and wine and various types of German delicacies.  Visitors can enjoy German-brewed Spaten Lager and Warsteiner Oktoberfest beers, as well as German sausage such as bratwurst and mettwurst.  A group of waitresses dressed in traditional German Bavarian costumes will be serving beer and interacting with the crowd. 

Buffalo's German show band, The Frankfurters, will provide music and entertainment for the crowd.  "It's not just a musical performance," said Marty Biniasz, media relations coordinator for the Buffalo Central Terminal Restoration Corporation. "You're really watching an authentic theatrical show."  The band will feature traditional German instruments and will lead the crowd in the traditional toast of "Prost" throughout the evening.

The celebration will also feature locally produced beer from Flying Bison and Pearl Street.  "Although the authenticity is having the German product, we're sort of paying homage to Buffalo's German history and Buffalo's German brewers," Biniasz said.  According to Biniasz, at one time there were over 100 breweries in Buffalo that were predominantly German and in the 1800s, Germans made up close to two-thirds of Buffalo's population.  Thus, the goal of the Buffalo Oktoberfest is to help the community appreciate its ties to German culture while also raising money to help preserve the Terminal itself.  "Whether you're German or not, it's a great event to celebrate fall," Biniasz added.

All proceeds from the event will go toward the Buffalo Central Terminal restoration project.  The Terminal's main passenger concourse is located at 495 Paderewski Drive at Memorial Drive.  Anyone seeking more information about the event or the Terminal can visit BuffaloCentralTerminal.org.