Stein-holding contests, polka dancing, and the smell of Bavarian pretzels took over Monument Square as downtown Racine hosted its first Oktoberfest celebration as part of the city's long-running First Fridays series, with organizers expecting as many as 10,000 people to pack the historic square. The event drew more than 40 food and art vendors and marked a new addition to the city's long-running First Fridays series.
German Club Brings Decades of Tradition to the Street Festival
The celebration was organized as a partnership between the Racine German Club and the Downtown Racine Corporation, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee. John Therkelsen, president of the German Club, said the club worked with the city to bring Oktoberfest to Monument Square, and that the group's stand shared its food, beers, and culture with the community. That stand featured special brats from Usinger's, Bavarian pretzels, and German beer. The club itself, formally known as the Deutscher Männer Verein, was established on October 19, 1894 at 701 Villa Street to help German immigrants preserve their language and traditions while settling into life in Wisconsin, according to the Deutscher Männer Verein.
That lineage runs deep in this corner of Wisconsin. The state holds the highest share of German-ancestry residents of any in the country, at roughly 37 percent, and German ancestry represents the single largest ancestral group in Racine County at 32.9 percent of the population, per data cited by World Population Review. The sausages served at the German Club's stand came from Usinger's Famous Sausage, founded in Milwaukee in 1880 by German immigrant Frederick Usinger, who bought out a butcher shop with $400 in savings and recipes carried over from Frankfurt. The company remains family-run today under fourth-generation president Fritz Usinger, with recipes that have gone unchanged for more than 140 years.
Organizers Eye Downtown's Reputation as Much as the Crowd Size
Kelly Kruse, executive director of the Downtown Racine Corporation, said organizers expected up to 10,000 people to attend and that the goal went beyond a single night of beer and pretzels. Kruse said organizers want people to recognize the quality of downtown Racine, according to the FOX6 report. This was the first Oktoberfest celebration folded into the Downtown Racine Corporation's monthly First Fridays series, which has previously been recognized as the best retail event in the state by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
The timing was no accident for a city steeped in German heritage. Racine's festival took place during the 191st Munich Oktoberfest, which ran September 19 through October 4, 2026, and continues a tradition dating back to an 1810 royal wedding celebration for Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese, according to Oktoberfest.de. That original festival now draws more than six million visitors annually to Bavaria, a scale Racine's downtown event does not approach but one that underscores why the holiday still resonates in a region shaped by 19th-century German settlement.
Monument Square's Deeper History Beneath the Beer Tents
The festival grounds themselves carry a history that long predates any stein-holding contest. Monument Square was originally surveyed in the 1830s as Haymarket Square before being renamed on July 4, 1884, when a 61-foot granite Civil War monument topped by a soldier statue was unveiled there, according to the Downtown Racine Corporation. Decades before that dedication, the square served as a gathering point for southeastern Wisconsin abolitionists, hosting a speech by Frederick Douglass in October 1856 and an 1854 rally over runaway slave Joshua Glover that led Wisconsin courts to declare the Federal Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional, per research compiled in an ArcGIS StoryMaps account of the site.
Downtown Racine has leaned heavily on that civic square and others like it this year. The district hosted roughly 70 events over the summer of 2026, and the corporation plans to hold nearly one event every weekend through mid-December, per the FOX6 report. That packed calendar follows a broader revitalization effort, with more than 70 event dates and 20 new businesses added to downtown in 2025 alongside projects such as Hotel Verdant and the over 100-unit Breakwater 233 development, according to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. Hoodline previously reported on four new storefronts that opened during an earlier First Fridays event along Main and Sixth Streets.
What Comes Next for Downtown's Event Calendar
Oktoberfest is far from the last themed First Friday on the books. The Downtown Racine Corporation is already planning its 9th Annual Kris Kringle Tour for December 12, 2026, an event that highlights Racine's Scandinavian baking heritage with free kringle samples offered at more than 30 downtown stops. Between now and then, the district's near-weekly event schedule is expected to continue drawing visitors into a commercial core that has added residential units and new businesses at a rapid clip over the past year.
