Alpenfest attendees browse through vendors' tents Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, outside the Joseph Community Events Center.

WALLOWA COUNTY — It started with a procession of lederhosen- and dirndl-clad Swiss Oregonians across the bridge at Terminal Gravity in Enterprise as members of the Polkatones played German-language folk songs awaiting the tapping of the inaugural keg of Alpenfest beer.

Then Andy Bowen and Grady Nelson of Terminal Gravity tapped the inaugural keg of Alpenfest beer and the festivities started to flow.

“It is a Vienna lager … that goes with the festival and everything they’re celebrating,” Nelson said.

And what they’re celebrating with the Alpenfest beer is Oregon’s Alpenfest, a celebration of Oregon’s “Little Switzerland.”

Terminal Gravity brews a special beer every for the festival, Nelson said.

The music

But Alpenfest wouldn’t be Alpenfest without the music, especially the Alpine folk songs provided by the Bellingham, Washington-based Polkatones.

The Polkatones, which were founded in Tillamook, are very much a family affair.

At the core of it is Byron and Linda White — Linda’s dad founded the band in 1971. Their two daughters also are musicians. Byron, who doubles as the group’s manager and “sound guy,” and daughter Stacy add their trombones to Linda’s accordion. Their other daughter, who wasn’t able to make it this year, plays saxophone.

“I’m the guy who keeps things going,” he said.

But Linda, who has been coming to Alpenfest since its beginning in 1975, recalls her early days on the keyboards.

“I took three years of piano lessons and three years of accordion lessons,” she said, before deciding upon the accordion.

The band is always eager to play Oktoberfest-style events, and not just Alpenfest, Linda said.

They do try to make it every Alpenfest, but sometimes another event gets in the way. The only thing that prevents them from coming to Alpenfest is when its date conflicts with another in Portland’s Oaks Park that they are committed to — usually on a leap year.

The group also plays Leavenworth, Washington, with its Bavarian-styled village and Alpine-style buildings with restaurants serving German beer and food. Leavenworth has about the same population as Enterprise.

Also, they’ve played for 20-plus years in Snowbird, Utah, an unincorporated community near Salt Lake City.

“They have a 10-week Oktoberfest, from mid-August to mid-October,” Linda said. “We also have one in our backyard in Bellingham. It’ll be the 39th year for it.”

Others in the band include drummer Alex Nelson, keyboardist JoDee Etchevverry, accordionist Joan Blazer and tuba player Everett Barr.

There’s even a bit of crossover between the Polkatones and another group common at Alpenfest, the Tirolean Dancers of Oregon. Emilee Yaakola, who is Etchevverry’s daughter, provides vocals for the Polkatones when she’s not on the dance floor with partner Erik Rudd.

Record attendance

New Alpenmeister Stefan Hasselblad estimated there was a record attendance at Alpenfest.

“We estimate 1,300 between Terminal Gravity, the Mount Howard Alphorns concert, the Alpenfair and our (Joseph) community center performances. That’s about 30% more than last year,” Hasselblad said Monday. “We really picked up momentum as the weekend went along. We had about twice as many people at our Saturday matinee concert as compared to last year. Saturday night we added tables, added chairs against the wall, and were still at standing/dancing room only.”

He and his wife, Molly, are new at the helm of the event, taking over for Chuck Anderson, who stepped down after a dozen years.

Hasselblad was particularly pleased with the response of volunteers. Fears that the event might be short on volunteer help didn’t pan out, even though people may not have officially signed up to help.

“For us, the best part was the volunteer turnout,” he said. “We’re still doing the math on volunteer hours, but for now we can confidently say that more than 50 volunteers worked at least 1,000 hours total to make this event happen. We’re really happy about all the support we got from the community and local businesses.”

An expanded menu beyond beer and bratwurst proved popular, he said.

“It was a big hit,” he said. “We sold out of our Schnitzel meals at all three performances and the German chili was very popular.”

Of course, the weather was a factor, he said. In addition to getting mixed rain and snow and chilly temperatures atop Mount Howard during the alphorn concert Saturday, the rain chased some folks indoors and away from the kids games and the Alpenfair.

“We had lawn games: cornhole, jump ropes, coloring, (safe, Nerf-style) archery and ring toss,” Hasselblad said. “The games were popular Friday when it was not raining. Saturday we decided not to set it up because of the rain, but a family asked for cornhole so we put it out there and several families used it despite the downpour.”

Next year?

The Hasselblads and the board of Alpenfest already are planning for next year, which will be held the last weekend in September.

“Our board has a lot of new ideas for next year,” Stefan said. “We would like to continue to add food options and games, as well as expand Alpenfest to new events in Lostine and Wallowa as well as more performances at senior centers and schools. We also want to add more free outdoor performances during our Alpenfair. We will have announcements about new Alpenfest events and activities on our Facebook, Instagram, and website at www.oregonalpenfest.com.”

But for a first-timer as alpenmeister, Hasselblad couldn’t be more pleased.

“It was a tremendous amount of fun,” he said. “We really enjoyed the sense of community and meeting all of the people who traveled to Wallowa County for Alpenfest.”

 

To view a photo gallery from the 2023 edition of Oregon’s Alpenfest, go to our website at wallowa.com.  

The original version of this story incorrectly identified the Byron White, the head of the Polkatones. The story has been corrected.