Fox Valley Oktoberfest on hiatus

Beer steins will remain empty, brats won't sizzle and the lederhosen will remain in the closet -- at least for now.

The popular Fox Valley Oktoberfest, which would have had its eighth-annual celebration in the parking lot at the Elgin Meijer store in September, is saying Auf Wiedersehen for now, and may return next year, organizers say.

The fest is on hiatus because more than a dozen people who played key roles in putting the three-day extravaganza together, have stepped down from the Oktoberfest committee.

"A lot of the old timers left and it's a lot of work to put something like this together," said three-year member Maria Thompson, who hails from Munich and has lived in the United States since 1961.

As a result, the 25-member committee has now fallen to 10 people, said Nate Griffin, the Oktoberfest committee's co-chairman.

The committee is composed of board members from the South Elgin Chamber of Commerce and the DANK chapter of the Fox Valley in Batavia, a group that celebrates German culture.

An entry in DANK's newsletter written by chapter President Willi Gohs elaborated on the committee's skeleton crew.

"The work load would have placed too much of a burden on the new and remaining committee members," Gohs wrote. "It all looks easy the weekend of the fest, but there is a tremendous amount of planning and work needed throughout the year to make it happen."

So much planning and work, in fact, that the committee spends seven months organizing the event, figuring out everything from who's working the kitchen, to which permits to secure.

DANK and the South Elgin chamber solicited individual and corporate sponsorship to pay for the event, said Ann Migatz, the chamber's executive director and former member of the committee.

"It is a great loss, it really is," she said.

Oktoberfest was a huge fundraiser for the Fox Valley's DANK chapter. Members say they'll meet in January to discuss money-raising events to fill its void.

"We'll have to put our heads together," said Thompson, a DANK member for the last 20 years. "I can't tell you anything definite."

The Fox Valley Oktoberfest, based on the two-week festival held in Germany during late September and early October, drew 17,000 visitors in 2006. Guests descended on the festival to sample German food, beer, culture and take part in carnival rides.

Compare that to seven years ago when only 2,500 people turned out the inaugural event, said Griffin, also president of the South Elgin Chamber of Commerce.

But if you're still jonesing for that piece of schnitzel in Elgin, sit tight.

Griffin is confident the fest will make a comeback in 2008.

"We do plan on doing it again next year," Griffin said. "We have to retool the way that we set the event up."