Oktoberfest Zinzinnati is an annual German-heritage festival in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. Based on the original Munich Oktoberfest, it is billed as the largest Oktoberfest celebration in the United States [1] and second largest in the world. [2] First held in 1976, as of 2023 it hosted over 700,000 attendees each year. [3] [4] It is held along six blocks of Downtown Cincinnati. [5]
The festival for years was held on 5th Street. In 2016 the festival moved to 3rd Street to clear room for Cincinnati Streetcar construction. [6] In 2021 it expanded to four days and in 2023 returned to 5th Street. [7]
Oktoberfest Zinzinnati claimed the world record for the largest Chicken Dance in 1994, with over 48,000 participants.
The festival includes the World Brat Eating Championship [8] [9] [10] and also the Running of the Wieners, in which dachshunds and dachshund mixes ("wiener dogs") race in 75-foot heats, wearing hot dog costumes. [9] [11] [12]
In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerts were virtual instead of live. In both 2020 and 2021, Oktoberfest Zinzinnati was recognized as the world's largest Oktoberfest because Munich's Oktoberfest was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic two years in a row. [13] [14]
Cincinnati has a large percentage of the population with some German ancestry, and there are multiple Oktoberfests held in and around the downtown area as well as outlying suburbs. [15] [16]
Cincinnati's Germania Society has held an Oktoberfest since 1971. [17] [15] The Donauschwaben Society also holds an Oktoberfest. [17] [15]
Covington, Kentucky, directly across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati and considered part of Greater Cincinnati, has since 1979 held an Oktoberfest in its Mainstrasse Village. [18] [15] Newport, Kentucky, also directly across the river from Cincinnati, holds an annual Oktoberfest. [17] [15]
Covington is a home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States. Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking rivers, it lies south of Cincinnati, Ohio, across the Ohio and west of Newport, Kentucky, across the Licking. It had a population of 40,691 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in Northern Kentucky and the fifth-most populous city in the state. A part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area, it is one of Kenton County's two seats, along with Independence.
The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge that spans the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. When opened on December 1, 1866, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world at 1,057 feet (322 m) main span, which was later overtaken by John A. Roebling's most famous design of the 1883 Brooklyn Bridge at 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m). Pedestrians use the bridge to get between the hotels, bars, restaurants, and parking lots in Northern Kentucky. The bar and restaurant district at the foot of the bridge on the Kentucky side is known as Roebling Point.
Paycor Stadium, previously known as Paul Brown Stadium, is an outdoor football stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the home venue of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL) and opened on August 19, 2000.
The Cincinnati Enquirer is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.
The Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals is a dachshund racing event featuring dachshunds and is held in California. The event is a charity event for Seal Beach Animal Care Center. The event has been held yearly for 22 years since 1996.
The Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon is an annual 26.2 mi (42.2 km) race run the first Sunday of May in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded by Robert J. Coughlin, it was first held in 1999, it is the 3rd-largest first-time marathon in the United States. The marathon had nearly 5000 finishers in 2008, and total participation for all weekend events exceeded 30,408 in 2011. The race starts and finishes downtown and also crosses into Northern Kentucky. It is a qualifying race for the Boston Marathon.
Dachshund racing, or wiener dog racing, is a popular but controversial sporting event, primarily found in North America. Typical dachshund races are either 25 or 50 yards in length, and are run on various surfaces. Many race tracks across America host these events as fundraising or publicity events, and routinely draw the venues' largest attendance numbers of the year.
Tall Stacks, formally known as the Tall Stacks Music, Arts, and Heritage Festival, was a festival held every three or four years in the Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, area, which celebrated the city's heritage of the riverboat. The sixth edition was held on October 4 to 8, 2006. The festival typically featured a number of vintage and replica steamboats from across the eastern United States, which docked along the Ohio River shoreline in Cincinnati and across the river in Covington and Newport, Kentucky.
The Cincinnati metropolitan area is a large, three-state media market centered on Cincinnati, Ohio, slightly overlapping the Dayton media market to the north. The Cincinnati market is served by one daily newspaper, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and a variety of weekly and monthly print publications. The area is home to 12 television stations and numerous radio stations. The E. W. Scripps Company was founded in Cincinnati as a newspaper chain and remains there as a national television and radio broadcaster. The term "soap opera" originally referred to Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, which created some of the first programs in this genre.
This is relating to the culture of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Oktoberfest is a two-week festival held each year in Munich, Germany during late September and early October. It is attended by six million people each year and has inspired numerous similar events using the name Oktoberfest in Germany and around the world, many of which were founded by German immigrants or their descendants.
The Banks is a mixed-use development along the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, on the land between Paycor Stadium and Great American Ball Park.
The Cincinnati Riverfest is an annual festival that takes place on Labor Day weekend on the Ohio River at Cincinnati. It has taken place annually since 1977. The highlight of the event, the fireworks display at 9:05 PM, is one of the largest in the Midwest. The festival's corporate sponsors are WEBN and Western & Southern Financial Group.
Cincinnati is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. Settled in 1788, the city is located in the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line with Kentucky. The population of Cincinnati was 309,317 in 2020, making it the third-most populous city in Ohio after Columbus and Cleveland, and 65th in the United States. The city is the economic and cultural hub of the Cincinnati metropolitan area, Ohio's most populous metro area and the nation's 30th-largest with over 2.265 million residents.
WGRI is a commercial radio station broadcasting an urban gospel radio format. It is licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and is owned by the Christian Broadcasting System, Ltd.. The studios and offices are on West 7th Street in Cincinnati.
Transportation in Kentucky includes roads, airports, waterways and rail.
The Connector is a streetcar system in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The system opened to passengers on September 9, 2016. The streetcar operates on a 3.6-mile (5.8 km) loop from The Banks, Great American Ball Park, and Smale Riverfront Park through Downtown Cincinnati and north to Findlay Market in the northern edge of the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Future extensions have been proposed to the Uptown area, home to the University of Cincinnati, the regional hospitals on Pill Hill, and the Cincinnati Zoo; and to Northern Kentucky.
Total Quality Logistics (TQL) is a North American freight brokerage and third-party logistics firm. It was founded in 1997 by Ken Oaks in Cincinnati, and is headquartered in nearby Union Township, Clermont County, Ohio. As of 2021, TQL is the largest private company in greater Cincinnati according to the Cincinnati Enquirer and American City Business Journals.
Arnold's Bar and Grill is the oldest continuously operating bar in Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of the oldest in the United States.
SkyStar Wheel is a 150-foot tall (45.7 m) 137-foot (41.8 m) diameter traveling observation wheel located in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf since November 13, 2023. It has previously operated in San Francisco's Music Concourse (2020–2023), Cincinnati's The Banks (2018–2020), Louisville's Waterfront Park (2018), and Norfolk (2018).