Mayor Carl Florea discusses Leavenworth Oktoberfest

LEAVENWORTH - This week, the City announced an Oktoberfest held by the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce.  The festival was originally going to be held by SE productions.

The split between Projekt Bayern’s Oktoberfest the City’s became clear in 2021 when Projekt Bayern announced their plan to move Oktoberfest to the Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee and the City of Leavenworth announcing their own Oktoberfest run by SE productions in Leavenworth.

Bayern Board Member Steve Lord declined to be interviewed but said Bayern was working on putting together a statement regarding the event and would be ready to release the statement soon. City Communication Analyst Christie Voos and Mayor Carl Florea insist the city is not bitter towards Bayern.

“That is up to them whether there is animosity. You know, they had the opportunity to continue to run the Oktoberfest that's located here that would have been scaled back according to the [changes] we discussed, but they chose not to,” Florea said.

Florea insists Bayern only needed to make changes to the way the festival to be considered to hold the festival in Leavenworth. But on Facebook, Bayern expresses that they worked hard to create a festival which met the city's request and were unable to.

“We own everything you see on site [at the festival]! Projekt Bayern and its committee has worked hard and met anything the city has asked through the festival and ad hoc committee! The organizations that we work with know that we have made this a better event,” a Facebook post from March 18, 2021 states.

The post alleges that Florea unprofessionally referred to Octoberfest as “drunkfest”. Voos was not available for immediate comment regarding this allegation. Bayern also said that their organization has provided a lot of funds to improve the community, which were all paid for through Oktoberfest.

On their website, Bayern lists many community projects they have helped with. This includes $115,000 for a Gazebo remodel, $10,000 for wrestling mats for Cascade High School, $65,000 for decorative Bavarian treatment on doors and windows at Cascade Medical Center and $164,000 for new restrooms at Lions Club Park.

Florea acknowledges that Bayern has helped with city projects but thinks the revenue from the Oktoberfest held in Leavenworth can still be used to do that. Florea said that he thinks the chamber will give back to the community via Oktoberfest in Leavenworth. He said SE productions decided independently to not continue with running the Oktoberfest event and he does not know the exact reason behind the decision.

“You would have to talk to [SE Productions] about what all went into their decision not to continue with it,” he said. “They were very helpful in getting the ball rolling, and now the chamber is picking it up,” he said.

Voos stated that Bayern has done quite a bit to contribute to the physical aspects of the city parks, like taking care of flowers. Florea said that Bayern started as a great service to promote the Bavarian theme and has a long, rich tradition, but that he isn’t sure if that tradition is as strong today.

“You know [Bayern] has decided that they want to hold a festival similar to what they were doing here down in Wenatchee. And I just think, you know, more power to them. That might be a great place to hold something of that size, down in a bigger city,” he said.

“So, I don’t wish them ill-will, but I just don’t think that continuing it up here, to have that same type of event was the best thing for Leavenworth,” Florea concluded.

Voos said that the contract with Bayern was a five-year contract to rent out the parking lots, P1 and P2, located downtown.  She said that the contract would auto-renew every five years unless either party said at least one year before the renewal date that they wanted to renegotiate the contract. The City gave Bayern notice in 2021 that they were not going to renew the contract.

“We wanted to revisit that agreement and we didn’t want to take parking for Oktoberfest,” she said. “Because we need parking. And because Front Street is closed. So, we said, ‘hey, here are our stipulations for what we are looking for in the future.’”

Voos said that the city has never had a contract to put on the Oktoberfest event and that the contract was simply an agreement to rent out the parking lots.  Voos said the city gave 541 days' notice that they wanted to renegotiate the parking lot contract and put out a request for proposal for a modified Oktoberfest.