In Heaven There Is No Beer
Hickory's Oktoberfest is one of the local events that I never miss. In the above video, the Foothills Oompah Band treats the crowd to "In Heaven There Is No Beer." These guys are at Oktoberfest every year, and people love to listen to their traditional (and not so traditional) Oktoberfest-themed music.
Bob Wilusz is another one of my favorite entertainers at Hickory's Oktoberfest each year. He wanders through the crowd with his accordion playing polka and waltz-themed tunes for the crowd throughout the weekend event.
My camera club manned a booth at this year's Oktoberfest for the purpose of promoting our amateur photography competition and selling prints from the members who were interested in doing so. We didn't sell very much, but I think the mistake we made was choosing the non-profit route rather than the business route of renting booth space. There was only a $25 difference in the booth space charge, but we took the cheaper way out. What we got for our $25 savings was a booth space on the outer edge of the square near the railroad tracks. That part wasn't so bad, but the tough part was that we were sandwiched between the political and religious booths. I think this little 'mistake' probably hurt us in realizing the potential foot traffic we could have had at the booth. In the booth direcltly next to us, we had this:
There was another guy with a sign hanging over his body that I just couldn't make myself photograph. He had actual photographs of partial birth abortions on his sign. The preaching and singing at this booth didn't bother me so much, but the graphic nature of the anti-abortion sign did.
I'm all for freedom of speech, so I shouldn't complain, but I do anyway. Due to some recent events in downtown Hickory, the door has been opened to a proliferation of this sort of free speech at all events held on Union Square, regardless of the nature of the event. These people wanted an audience just as much as I did today. At next year's Oktoberfest, they can have their audience, but I'm going to pay the additional $25 to have my booth alongside all the other arts and craft (and junk) vendors away from this stuff. I think that our booth being in this particular line of booths probably kept some of my potential customers away.
Since my mom is now into photography, as well as me and my dad, we're going to have our own booth at next year's Oktoberfest. Hopefully we'll be more successful on our second attempt :)