OLDS — Although Oldstoberfest – the annual Bavarian rodeo and biergarten – had to be cancelled this year due to COVID-19, coordinator Gillian Shields is hopeful it can be kept alive in other ways; likely online somehow.
Oldstoberfest was scheduled to be held Sept. 18-19 at the Olds Regional Exhibition grounds but after much soul searching, the organizing committee decided that it was just too risky health-wise and financially to hold it this year due to COVID.
So plans are to skip a year and hold the next one in the fall of 2021.
“Obviously economically it was not feasible, like we’re not doing anything for the community if only 200 people can attend, because it doesn’t make sense,” Grant said. “Do we bring all these people in from other places into Olds and then what happens there?
"So there were just so many different concerns that we had. And then also we’re thinking about the safety of the community and our volunteer groups. Do they even want to be in that position?”
Grant said Oldstoberfest is not the only event to be cancelled or postponed, due to the pandemic, noting rodeos across the country have been cancelled for that same reason.
“I guess we’re going to sit tight these next few months and see what happens for the spring rodeos,” she said. “But we’re anticipating that we should be at least somewhat back to normal at least for our capacity by September 2021. That’s kind of our goal.”
Meanwhile, Grant is looking at finding some way of keeping what she calls the “spirit” of the event alive.
“In the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking at doing some things social media-wise to engage and kind of celebrate our partners and our sponsors –be online for sure,” she said, stressing that she hasn’t had time to really explore with other organizers what could be done.
Grant is disappointed Oldstoberfest had to be cancelled this year, not only because it’s such a fun event and it attracts lots of people to Olds, but also because it helps raise money for many local charities, sports teams and other not-for-profit organizations.
Grant said in 2019, the two-day event directly contributed more than $100,000 into the community.
Of that figure, just over $60,000 went directly toward local and clubs, she added.
The other aspect of having to shelve the event is it’s a relatively new tradition in town.
“We’re still an up and coming event,” she said. “We’re just going through those trials of really building that foundation and establishing ourselves.
“You almost have to start everything all over again because you don’t know what it’s going to look like when you put on events.
“How do you take admission? How do you serve the bigger skill events? Like, I don’t think anyone really knows what that looks like yet because it hasn’t really happened (before).”
Grant said C5 Rodeo, which co-ordinates Oldstoberfest, has an Olds business licence.
“One of the things that I’ve appreciated is that the community has been really supportive and understood and reached out and said, ‘Hey we support you. Whatever you need just let us know.’ So that’s been good and – yeah, we’ll get through it,” she said.
“I’m really excited though for when we can have Oldstoberfest again because I think it’ll be a really great, uplifting thing for our community. And hopefully we can get things rolling sooner than later,” she added with a light laugh.
