Oktuberfest is returning to Rexburg this weekend to celebrate the year's bountiful potato harvest.
The event is held annually by the city of Rexburg on the historic Tabernacle Civic Center grounds. The celebration will feature a variety of games, live music, and dancing suitable for the whole family.
According to Emily Miller, event planner for the city of Rexburg, one of the most popular activities at Oktuberfest is the potato derby.
“So we will have the pinewood derby track," Miller said, "and you can turn your potato into a derby car, put wheels on it, you can decorate it however you want and race your potato down the derby track. So that's super fun.”
The event and all its activities will be free for attendees. The Madison Junior High Orchestra will be hosting a potato bar fundraiser dinner in the field behind the Tabernacle where attendees can eat dinner. The potato bar will be $12 a person with kids five and under eating free. All proceeds will go towards the orchestra's trip to perform at Carnegie Hall in the spring.
The festival will feature live musical performances from the orchestra, and folk music played by Vince Crofts and his band who performed at the event last year.
“They're so great," said Miller. "They played last year for the whole time. And we just danced all night. It was so fun. We heard so many people say it was like walking into a Hallmark movie.”
Guests are also invited to bring donations of non-perishable food items to the event for the Family Crisis Center. These donations will go towards helping those in the community struggling with food insecurity.
Miller shares the importance of events like Oktuberfest and their impact on the community:
“In the Rexburg Cultural Arts office, our biggest goal is to provide opportunities for people to have special community experiences, things that you can't do in other ways… So the things that we're trying to do are things that provide that community feeling and give people opportunities that they wouldn't have or opportunities to gather and have a shared experience.”
Oktuberfest will be held on the grounds outside the Rexburg Tabernacle from 4 to 8 p.m. this Saturday.