Columbus Oktoberfest turns 60 this weekend, and the free, rain-or-shine celebration at the Ohio Expo Center and State Fair Grounds is bringing back everything from cream-puff eating contests to a 508-pound stone lift. Running Sept. 11-13 at 717 E. 17th Ave., the festival has grown into one of the city's biggest fall traditions, drawing more than 30,000 patrons in recent years.
The milestone weekend kicks off Thursday, Sept. 10, with an official party hosted by Hofbräuhaus Columbus at 800 Goodale Blvd. from 5 to 10 p.m., according to The Columbus Dispatch. The Columbus Oktoberfest Meiler Vier 4-mile run/walk takes place at 6:15 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, and finishers are rewarded with complimentary sausage and beer, per the Columbus Oktoberfest Facebook page. Main festival hours run 5 p.m. to midnight on Sept. 11, noon to midnight on Sept. 12, and noon to 8 p.m. on Sept. 13, with parking priced at $15.
A Weekend Built Around Strength, Sausage and Song
Saturday brings the Gemütlichkeit Games at the ODNR Amphitheater, a set of Bavarian strength competitions that debuted in 2021. The lineup includes a keg toss, the Steinheben stone lift and the Steinstossen stone throw, and per the Dispatch's reporting the Steinheben challenges competitors to hoist a stone weighing 508 pounds while the stones thrown in Steinstossen can weigh up to 180 pounds.
Beyond the strongman spectacle, the festival features more than 15 live bands across three stages, along with cream-puff eating, yodeling and Masskrugstemmen (stein-holding) contests. Line-dancing lessons are scheduled for Friday evening, Sept. 11, and organizers also offer polka-dance instruction, ax-throwing and Paint and Sip sessions on Sept. 12 and 13 at 1 p.m., according to the Dispatch.
Food, Drink and a New Cocktail Lounge
Signature eats include Schmidt's Bahama Mamas, bratwurst and jumbo cream puffs, alongside a menu of reuben on a stick, chicken tenders, pommes frites, rotisserie chicken, pretzels and sauerkraut balls. New this year is a cocktail lounge located in Hofbräuhaus Prost Hall, serving drinks that pair Middle West spirits with Schmidt's sodas — including Oyo honey vanilla bean vodka with Schmidt's cream puff soda and Middle West straight bourbon with Schmidt's new root beer, the Dispatch reports.
Kinderplatz offers bounce rides, crafts and face-painting for children, while the Marktplatz pavilion hosts more than 80 arts, crafts and commercial vendors. Big screens will broadcast Ohio State Buckeyes football and NFL action throughout the weekend for fans who want their fall sports alongside their beer steins.
“Columbus Oktoberfest has activities that can draw and involve people from ages 2 to 92,” Carla Epler, the festival's executive director and Schmidt's COO, told the Dispatch. Epler also helped lead the event's rapid 2009 reorganization, when the Schmidt family partnered with the Cox family to rebuild the festival at the Ohio Expo Center in just 11 weeks after the German Village Society voted to cancel it over weather risks and unprofitability, according to Tales of Old Columbus.
Why the Fest Carries the German Village Name
Columbus Oktoberfest actually began at Schiller Park in 1967 before moving through several venues on its way to its permanent home at the Ohio Expo Center, per Tales of Old Columbus. German Village, the historic preservation district south of downtown Columbus settled heavily by 19th-century German immigrants, lent the festival its name even though the event no longer takes place there. The Ohio Expo Center's century-old open-air pavilions provide more than 100,000 square feet of covered space, which is why organizers can promise the festival runs completely rain or shine, according to the Ohio Expo Center.
That relocation also explains a quirk of local fall calendars: Columbus actually hosts three separate Oktoberfest celebrations every September, including the large fairgrounds event, a scaled-down neighborhood fest run by the German Village Society, and an older tradition organized by the Germania Singing & Sport Society, according to Anne DeVoe. The split traces directly back to the main festival's move away from German Village after 2009.
The Schmidt family's roots in Columbus food service run deep. Their business dates to 1886, when J. Fred Schmidt opened a meatpacking house, and the family has operated as the oldest family-owned food vendor at the Ohio State Fair since 1914, according to Ohio.org. That meatpacking plant became the now-iconic Schmidt's Sausage Haus restaurant in 1967. One of the family's signature offerings, the Bahama Mama spicy sausage on a roll, was named the official food of the city of Columbus in 2014 after winning 46 percent of the vote in a reader contest conducted by The Columbus Dispatch, per Wikipedia.
National Recognition and Practical Details
The festival's reputation extends well beyond central Ohio. USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards named Schmidt's Columbus Oktoberfest a top-10 Oktoberfest, and the event earned another national nomination in 2026, according to Experience Columbus.
Admission to Columbus Oktoberfest is free. Attendees should plan ahead on payment: organizers enforce a credit-card-only policy for all food and beverage purchases, so anyone carrying cash will need to exchange it for on-site fest cards at Heidelberg Hall before ordering.
