Bratwurst and Beer: Oktoberfest brings thousands to Mount Lemmon Ski Valley

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The polka music could be heard all throughout the Ski Valley. The beer kept on pouring. As the lifts moved higher, so did people’s spirits. Oktoberfest’s last day at Ski Valley on Mount Lemmon Sunday brought out hundreds of people.

The festival has been going on since the last two weeks of September and ran through this weekend. Employees from Ski Valley said thousands of people visited over the course of the four week festival.

“Oktoberfest is such an iconic thing and not a lot of people can make it to Germany, so it’s cool that it’s on Mount Lemmon,” first time attendee Alex Page said.

Thaddeus Behrmann works at Ski Valley and was the “director of fun”, coordinating activities like dancing and limbo for kids. He’s noticed people from all over the world come to the festival, including places like Munich, Germany.

“What really makes this place different is how eclectic the crowd is. We’ve got a melting pot of all different people,” Behrmann said.

Davis Buttery and his family run Ski Valley and put on the event every year. The event is in its forty-ninth year.

“Tucson is a pretty close knit community and everyone up here, you’ll see someone you know or you’ll see the same people every year,” Buttery said.

The event is something that helps him connect with his German roots.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to actually go back to Germany, see anything of where I’m from or anything like that, so this is about the closest I can get to it,” he said.

However, the event is also an opportunity for him to see the community come together before their next big season, which is ski season in the winter.

“It’s a good time to come together and be a local with everybody else,” Buttery said.