Charlotte Oktoberfest was unexpectedly postponed until 2017

Citing a litany of obstacles such as “site concerns, including construction, parking, safety, and other nearby events,” organizers Carolina Brewmasters have pulled the plug on the 2016 running of Charlotte Oktoberfest, scheduled for October 1.

Tickets were due to go on sale at the beginning of August.

This postponement will have reverberations far beyond just weekend warriors looking to sample a variety of beer, cider, and wine. The Brewmasters have donated all profits from the Oktoberfest event, totaling over $600,000, to area nonprofits over the years. This year’s scheduled recipients of donation dollars were Carolina Thread Trail, Charlotte Family Housing, On Eagle’s Wings, and RescuedMe.

Organizing an occasion of Oktoberfest’s magnitude is no easy task. A team of volunteers begins the planning process each January, ensuring an event for the 6,000 attendees and plethora of attending breweries goes off without a hitch. This year, time simply ran out.

It all begins with a signed contract between the organizers and the host facility, an essential milestone that never came to fruition in time. “Once our deadline passed, we had no other options,” explained Robert Adams, president of the Carolina BrewMasters.

That contract was a necessary first step in obtaining a litany of other permits necessary to run the festival. “We realized too late that the AvidXchange Music Factory was not going to be a viable option,” Adams explained. “We have to get a series of permits in a particular order, instead of all at once.”

For example, a parking deck was due to replace lost paved parking spaces that organizers were counting on, but completion of that project was already pushed back from June until August, with no guarantees of its readiness even at the later date.

Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) permits required a processing period of 60 to 80 days. On top of that, paperwork must be filed with CMPD, and the fire marshall must inspect and sign off on the site. Without proper approvals and a firm date in place, organizers were unable to take further steps such as assembling sponsors and coordinating with participating brewery partners.

Past festivals had been held at the MetroLina Expo, which is slated to become a construction site itself by month’s end. While several other alternate sites were quickly proposed, scheduling and logistical conflicts soon arose, and there simply wasn’t enough of a window for this year’s festival to pivot to a new location and put on the festival attendees expect.

Talks regarding a new host site for the 2017 Oktoberfest are already underway.

“We will be back,” I was promised at the end of a phone call with Robert Adams. It was clear this cancellation weighed heavily on him. “This is a disappointing end to 2016, but we’ll be back next year, better than ever.”