Marcus Center for the Performing Arts to Host OKTOBERFEST Event, 9/20-21

The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts is hosting its first annual Oktoberfest celebration on Marcus Center's Grounds on September 20-21. Grounds open at 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm on Friday, September 20 and 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm on Saturday, September 21. Admission is FREE.

Dinner options will be available each night for purchase through Saz's Hospitality Group. Friday night's menu will include a traditional Milwaukee Fish Fry and on Saturday, they will be roasting a pig and serving Spanferkel (pig roast) as a dinner option. Additional food and beverage will also be available for purchase.

Various Wisconsin bands will perform over the two - day event. Performers include: Freistadt Alte Kameraden Band, Orvile Konop and the OK Dance Band, and The Tom Brusky Band. The Glockenspiel will be there on both days.

The Freistadt Alte Kameraden Band in 1942 as a group of friends who loved to play the music of their National origin started the group that has now evolved into a renowned musical organization. Through it's 75 year history the band has played for U.S. Presidents, on the Washington Mall, multiple tours of Germany and Austria, every Milwaukee Germanfest since 1981 and every Oktoberfest in Old Heidleberg Park since 1969. The band is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The Freistadt Alte Kameraden Band now in its seventh decade celebrates and shares the sound of traditional German music. The band will perform on Friday, September 20 from 6:00 pm-10:00 pm.

Orvile Konop and the OK Dance Band is talented musicians that specialize in German and Czech Polka's and Waltz's. Orv Konop and the OK Dance Band perform throughout Northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. Orv and the band have been inducted into the Wisconsin Polka Hall of Fame for Cultural Heritage and Orv was named the 2010 Wisconsin Orchestra Leader of the Year! The band will perform on Saturday, September 21 from 1:00 pm-5:00 pm.

The Tom Brusky band is not a variety band that plays a few polkas, but literally an authentic, third-generation Milwaukee polka band. They can rile up a crowd with all the beer hall favorites like Roll Out the Barrel, She's Too Fat For Me, and Who Stole the Kishka, or strike golden-ager's sentimental chords with classic waltzes such as Waltz Across Texas and The Blue Skirt Waltz. The band boasts a repertoire of over 300 polkas and waltzes. They are firmly established in Wisconsin's polka music circuit, and are regularly hired for weddings, Octoberfests, fairs and festivals. The band will perform on Saturday, September 21 from 6:00 pm-10:00 pm.

The Glockenspiel, a life-size replica of a cuckoo clock created by a local German club. The five men who make up the Glockenspiel dance and drink accompanied by a button accordionist. Performances of the Glockenspiel are Friday, September 20 at 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm. Saturday, September 21 at 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm, 4:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm.

For more information, visit MarcusCenter.org.