Milwaukee's Original Oktoberfest
Glendale, Wisconsin
Milwaukee's Original Oktoberfest is the Bavarian Bierhaus's fall festival at Old Heidelberg Park, 700 West Lexington Boulevard in Glendale, on Milwaukee's North Shore. The Bierhaus bills it as the longest-running celebration of its kind in the city, dating the party back more than 60 years, and Milwaukee Magazine calls it the biggest Oktoberfest celebration in the area - a month-long run rather than a single weekend. The 2026 edition runs five straight Friday-to-Sunday weekends from September 4 through Sunday, October 4: Fridays from 4 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m., closing at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $5 on Fridays, $10 on Saturdays, and free on Sundays, parking is free, and a kids' midway of carnival games runs on Fridays and Saturdays. Police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics get a free entree with a valid department ID.
The "original" in the name comes from the park itself. The German clubs of Milwaukee leased the land on North Port Washington Road in the 1920s, and the park, soccer fields, and clubhouse were finally complete in 1967. Old Heidelberg Park is the home ground of the Bavarian Soccer Club, founded on July 29, 1929 at Milwaukee's Lake Park as Fussball Club Bayern and renamed in 1956 when it bought its new field site (it became Bavarian United SC in a 2021 merger). For nearly four generations the park's Bavarian Inn hosted weddings, Munich New Year's parties, and Milwaukee's original Oktoberfest - President Reagan stopped by the annual Family Octoberfest at Old Heidelberg Park on September 26, 1984, in the middle of his re-election campaign. The Bavarian Inn closed in 2011, when the soccer club bought the 15-acre property, and on April 26, 2016 the Bavarian Bierhaus reopened the space with a 350-seat beer hall and a 15-barrel brewery. The adjoining biergarten is billed as Milwaukee's oldest and largest.
The beer is brewed on site in German styles, with the Reinheitsgebot as a guideline. Festival season brings out the house Oktoberfest, a malty copper-colored Marzen at 5.8 percent, and a lighter Festbier at 5.1 percent, next to the year-round Helles Original Lager, Jacob's Best Pilsner, Unkel Dunkel, and Haus Hefeweizen, and past editions have poured Spaten and Weihenstephan imports alongside the house taps. The kitchen serves Usinger's sausage, bratwurst, schnitzel, Doner kebabs, Bavarian soft pretzels, sauerkraut, warm potato salad, and apple strudel, with spanferkel and rollbraten on the roast side and kids' and vegetarian plates available.
The festival fills the Old Heidelberg Festhall and the grounds around it, with more than 300 picnic tables spread across the property and roughly 50,000 people passing through over the month, by Milwaukee Magazine's count. Traditional bands such as the Alte Kameraden, Alpine Blast, and Polka Steve and the Biermen rotate through the weekends, with German brass, Schuhplattler folk dancing, yodeling, and sing-alongs on the program, plus Hammerschlagen and stein-hoisting contests. Groups can reserve a picnic table for up to eight in the Festhall through Eventbrite - $10 per table on Fridays and $40 on Saturdays - and Saturday tables do sell out. Dogs are allowed in the designated pet-friendly outdoor areas.
This page is the permanent home of Milwaukee's Original Oktoberfest on Beer.Social. When the next edition is announced we link the current dates and details here, and past editions are archived below.
Next edition
Milwaukee's Original Oktoberfest 2026 — September 4, 2026 – October 4, 2026 hosted by Bavarian Bierhaus. Event details and RSVP