Oktoberfest returns to Naper Settlement Oct. 1-2

Oktoberfest returns to Naper Settlement this weekend. Celebrate fall inside the event's signature beer tent with live music, traditional German cuisine, live polka bands, rock music at night, themed contests, and a selection of local and traditional Oktoberfest beer varieties.

During the day on Saturday, an expanded children's area will have activities for the whole family!

Tickets are $15 or $10 for youth, age 4 to 12. Get tickets in advance at www.napersettlement.org. Festival hours are Friday, Oct. 1, from 5 to 10 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 2, from noon to 10 p.m.

Check out the professional pumpkin carving by Titus Arensberg from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and noon to 7 p.m. Saturday.

On Friday evening, Ed Wagner's Lustige Blaskapelle will kick off the fest with the traditional brass band playing German, Austrian, and Czech polkas, waltzes, and marches from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The Polkaholics, a Chicago band that plays a "high-speed collision of polka and rock 'n roll," from 8 to 10 p.m.

On Saturday, Oct. 2, there will be games and activities from PRO Martial Arts, Pinot's Palette, Wicked Ball Chicago, including chalk art, corn hole, giant Connect Four, giant Jenga, lawn pong, and lawn golf, from 1 to 4 p.m. Join in a stein holding competition from 2:30 to 3 p.m.

The Happy Wanderers, the German band from Aurora, will kick off Saturday's musical entertainment from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Alpine Thunder, a German folk/pop band, will perform from 3 to 5 p.m., followed by Freeze Dried, polka band from Chicago, will play from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The festival will wrap up with Brass from the Past, with music from the 1960s, '70s, and '80s from 8 to 10 p.m.

All Naperville Heritage Society events take place rain or shine. Free parking is available in the Municipal Parking Garage on the corner of Eagle and Aurora and in the Naper Settlement visitor's lot on Porter Avenue and Webster Street.