Episode 22 Oktoberfest and High Plains Art Council

6:27PM Sep 23, 2023

Speakers:

Sheila Jenkinson

Sheila Jenkinson

All

Sally

Carrie

Keywords:

nebraska

oktoberfest

love

excited

podcast

coming

year

wonderful

small town

season

entertainment

mug

volunteer

laughing

norfolk

little bit

carrie

elvis

small towns

dance

Hey everyone, I'm Sheila Jenkinson and you are listening to the Growing Small Town Nebraska Podcast where my co-host, Marcie Sextro, and I ask community leaders and business owners about their efforts in revitalizing the Cornhusker State. If you love your small town and you're looking for ways to make it even better, or maybe you're interested in what this revitalization movement may mean for you and your family. Join us as we talk with small town Nebraskans making our state the definition of "The Good Life."

GROW Nebraska helps Nebraska entrepreneurs have access to the global marketplace. Started in 1998, GROW Nebraska is an educational nonprofit that strives to help Nebraska entrepreneurs increase online visibility through social media and other platforms. They help businesses get connections that move their business forward. GROW Nebraska provides free trainings to the public every third and fourth Thursday and a Google training on the first Wednesday of the month. Find out more at grownebraska.org

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Don't miss it! The third annual West Point Car Show is September 17 from 11am to 3pm. Hundreds of classic and new cars, trucks, motorcycles, and military vehicles will be on display arriving from all over the Midwest. There will also be food trucks, a craft show, and live music. Go to roadgems.com for more information or to register.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast. We are in Sydney, Nebraska, where we are chatting with Sally who is the director of Oktoberfest and Carrie, president of the High Plains Art Council. Welcome, ladies, to the podcast.

rarrThank you!

Glad to be here!

So Oktoberfest is an annual event here in Sydney. Sally, can you tell us how it got started?

Sure. So it was started as a chamber function. It was a way to raise money for the chamber and they started down in the park and they bought the largest circus tent that you can rent from Nebraska Tent and Awning and decided to serve hamburgers and beer and here we are (40) 49 years later.

Oh. That's awsome. Forty-nine years.

That's all it takes. Hamburgers and beer.

Right.

There you go.

Tell us all about the event. So you have a large circus tent, but you have other activities and things that go along with it.

Yep, so we have continuous free-to-the-public entertainment from noon to midnight, Friday and Saturday. No cost to anyone. It's just fun to come watch and listen. (We also support) the local schools come and swing choirs get to show everybody what they've been working so hard for. We also have the largest craft show in the area. So it's a really nice craft show and it's juried. So they get to go through and decide what's allowed and what is not allowed.

Really?

So, we want it to be homemade items.

Oh, nice!

Or at least hand-crafted. It's not purchased and just resold. We also have a large Farmers Market with all kinds of baked goods and pumpkins. People's favorite things are like those painted little pumpkins with the cute little face.

I love that. My mom paints pumpkins and a sister of mine used to have a festival and those painted pumpkins were always gone.

Oh they're fun. They're absolutely wonderful.

Yeah, they are. And they can last for a long time.

Yeah, they can!

Inside, the tent is lined. We have one beer booth. A rather large one. We're doing Bud Light, Busch light. We have a Sam Adams Oktoberfest, and this year we have a local brewery that's bringing their brew...Boss City Brewery. So we're kind of excited about that because that's a new addition. We have bratwurst. We have funnel cakes, pizzas, anything you need. Benny's famous sauerkraut.

Oh, my. I'm that. I'm all about that.

(Laughing.)

I love the sauerkraut, too.

I know lots of people don't but the brats and the sauerkraut, that would be my thing.

It sounds like a an amazing event sounds like a big event. It is takes a lot of collaboration, I'm sure, so what kind of groups help with the Oktoberfest?

The Oktoberfest itself is run strictly on volunteers, the committee members just volunteer. Everything we make goes into next year celebration. We are in partnership with city. We need the city's help with the parade, blocking off streets, those kinds of things. We're in partnership with county officials, because our celebration is held on county grounds. It takes a village and we definitely have a great one here.

Oktoberfest has become a family affair for you. So tell us a little bit about how your whole family has been involved in it and what a wonderful thing that is.

Okay, as I was a young girl my mom was involved in Oktoberfest, just to volunteer, and then she decided to join the committee. When I came back home to raise my son, I decided to join as well you know, monkey see monkey do, so if she volunteers I volunteer.

Yeah.

So I started volunteering and grabbed a couple of my friends to volunteer, and my son also volunteers and he's the emcee.

Wonderful. It's great family time. And, and that's a great thing.

What are the dates for Oktoberfest?

So this year, it's October 6th, 7th, and 8th. But for future reference, it is always the first full weekend in October.

All right, it's easy to remember. Oktoberfest...first full week in October every year.

Yes. The 6th is school things. You have Pipe Band, that's people's favorite. They come out from the city of Denver, actually. They play Friday and Saturday night. Saturday, we kick it off with the parade, and then continuous entertainment and end it with the band. On Sunday, though, we have something exciting, which is we have a quick church service. It's just kind of a blessing and Oktoberfest is supposed to be a celebration of the harvest. We have that and then we have the wiener dog races.

I love that. I wanna see those sometime.

If you have never been, it is something to see.

That would be hilarious.

I know. I would love to see that.

They also have a costume contest.

For the wiener dogs?

For the wiener dogs.

Oh my goodness. (Laughing.) So fun.

Poor little dogs.

(Laughing.)

That's super cute.

Tell us a little bit more about the Pipe Band. What is that like?

So the Denver Pipe Band has been coming for a long time. My mom was in charge of the entertainment. We got a hold of the Denver pipe band, and when they come people always say how can you afford them? Well, they come because it's the end of their season, and it's just a fun celebration. They march into the tent and marched through to the middle to the stage, and it just commands attention. You could almost hear a pin drop. People are so focused and so excited to see them. It's, bagpipes and drummers and they also have dancers. So we have some Scottish dancers that travel with their fantastic.

Oh, that sounds like it.

Sounds amazing.

Yeah.

We have a partnership with this dance group from Denver. And the "Princess Show" is what it's called. And this year, we split her entertainment up into two. She'll be here Friday, and her group will be here again on Saturday. Friday they're doing "Four Dollies and a Reba", so

(Laughing.)

So, they sing, they dance...

"Four Dollies and a Reba?" for Oktoberfest.

And so, like they're dressed like four Dollies and a Reba?

Yes. Yes.

Oh my gosh, that's hysterical.

And they really sing and dance. So they're they're phenomenal.

How do I apply to be a Dolly?

I know. That's funny. That is too funny.

They'll be at seven o'clock on Friday. And then Saturday at seven o'clock, we're having the princess show. And this one will be a children's show. It's the superheroes and villains. So last year, we had trolls and the kids loved it. It's just fun to get something and see how they're so excited and their little brains are turnin' and then you see them all out there doing the dances.

I hear something unique about your Oktoberfest. You can't just drink out of just anything.

Correct. So every year, the committee picks a logo, and we send it off get souvenir mugs back. So to drink beer, you have to come get a wristband and let us make sure that you're old enough. Then you can purchase a souvenir mug with a cute logo on it, and they are collectible. So we know people that have collected it since day one. The only year we didn't have those was the year 2020. And that was due to covid. But yeah, come buy a souvenir mug. That's where we make the most of our money, mugs and pitchers.

And to our listeners, Marcie and I each received one of these special mugs from 2020. The artwork is interesting. You wanna tell them about it.?

So the little guy is holding up two beers and he's got a mask on.

There you go.

(Laughing.)

For 2020. Yea, that is very special. Yeah, very collectible.

We're really excited for the event. We just hope you have a wonderful time with it. We encourage everyone to attend.

Thank you so much.

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Well Carrie, we are excited to talk to you about the High Plains Art Council which has encouraged Fine Arts in the community of Sydney for many years. So tell us about the development of the council and what your mission is.

Thank you for inviting us, we're really excited to be here. It was incorporated in 1986. So it's been a number of years, people have put in a tremendous amount of work into the Arts Council. And we just truly believe that a thriving community just needs that fine arts landscape, just to enhance everybody's lives.

We agree we're both very, very involved with that. So, absolutely. As far as the outreach program that you have, not only with school, but also a retirement home, can we hear a little bit about what that is, and what that's like?

Well, sure, we have a lot of different kinds of outreaches. And we put them in where the need is, and where just fits appropriately. We do have a partnership with the schools, it's quite extensive. We have an artist in residency that goes into the fourth grade. Mr. Tamayo who does the residency, he is from the Lakota Indian tribe. And he is amazing. In minutes, he connects with the kids, he brings in all sorts of artifacts, and they create their own container that uses the symbolism that he has been teaching them all week and about the history, the culture, the heritage. And also just to understand that lots of people come from lots of different places and to learn about and so it really is encourages kids to branch out. So that's one example. We do a lot at the high school, especially with instrumental music, just with the performers that we get. And every year we try to have an in-house performance in the retirement home. The residents sometimes have a difficult time leaving or especially if it's winter, they don't want to leave and go out in our slippery streets. And so they'll often go in with one or two of the band members and sing and dance and engage with them. And I will say that I've been to a couple and it doesn't matter. They just got the biggest grin on their face. Just really enjoy the small setting that they're in.

That's wonderful. And the retirement home, I think, is such a great aspect that most people don't think about. But what a wonderful way to do that. In learning about your High Plains Art Council, I was really impressed with how you're so committed to making sure that the arts are accessible to everyone in town by your price point that you use for your activities.

Yeah, that's one of our beliefs, that the art should be available to everyone no matter what. So if you're interested in coming, we'll make sure you get there. We also partner with our office of human development. And so their clients use our Arts Council as part of their leisure plan development. You know, we just reach out to everybody. So if somebody has difficulty getting there, gosh we'll help you get there. The city bus will even come and get people.

Wonderful.

Yeah, that's a new thing that happened this past year. We really rely on grants. We write as many grants as we can. And our businesses in town really, really support what we're doing. I love that part of it.

I'm sure they see the impact that it has on the community to have those kinds of things available.

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. It's just better for everybody.

And that's one of the things too, you talked about, you know, somebody can't get thereig, you'll figure out a way. That is one of the charming things about small towns in Nebraska. That's what we're talking about, that community sense, and just a general caring of one another.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Yeah. So you have some upcoming events. Tell us a little bit about that.

We do. We're kicking off the season with Joseph Hall. He is one of the top rated Elvis Impressionists or Elvis Tribute singers. He just calls himself Elvis his biggest fan. Yeah. And he really is he really respects the music. He respects who Elvis was and what he stood for. And he's just a lot of fun, just a lot of fun to be around. He kind of giggles that he's getting older and it's harder to some of the gyrating moves.

(Laughing.)

And then we were going to have a dance company (cannot come) but unfortunately, they've canceled and we're very disappointed in that; and really excited that we're able to replace them with a magician. Mark Clearview is his name. And he was even on Penn and Teller.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. And he has a really great family show just I saw a little blurb about what he was doing. And it's adding that humor to it, just very engaging. So those are the first two coming up. And then we're going to have a Christmas show with the Nebraska Brass that will be coming in. And in the new year. We've got Missoula children's theater coming, we've got a new one coming, "Holy Rocka Rollz" that sounds really fun...

Wait, say that one again...

It's called the Holy Rocka Rollaz. It's a rockabilly band.

Oh, fun.

Oh.

So, I think they're just going to be fabulous and really well-received. And then Paul Siebert is coming. He's been here before, and he's one that goes into the retirement homes to sing. And then we're going to end our season with a cabaret theater of just the Great American Songbook. Just kind of a little bit of our heritage all across the United States

Wonderful and when is your Elvis show then?

It's September 16.

So that's coming right up. So everyone, mark that on your calendars, because that will be a wonderful thing to be able to go and see. And, where is it at then?

It will be at the high school performing arts center.

Wonderful And the cost of tickets?

Adult is $15. Seniors $10. And if you're a student five, and that includes college students, and under age five is free.

What an impressive price point.

Walk-in tickets are available?

Yes, they are. They are available, although I would come early.

Perfect.

Thank you so much for sharing about that.

Yeah, this has been great to hear about all of these things.

When you're talking about small towns in and caring and doing and I tell you, it is a very busy town. There's almost every night there's something going on. So you have lots of different opportunities here to choose from different things. You know, when you think about small towns, it's not sleepy. It's quite busy.

That's a great point. I love it. We always end on one final question that we love to ask all our guests. Carrie, we'll start with you. What do you love about living in small town, Nebraska.

I am actually going to quote my son when we first moved here. He said, You know, when you live in a small town, everybody knows what you're doing. But when you're living in a small town, everybody knows what you're doing. And I love that, that they do, and they care. And so when he was riding his bicycle without a helmet, I did receive a phone call. Which is what prompted the him saying that and I think about that a lot because people do know, but they also really care.

Yeah, it takes a village to raise children it really is helpful to be able to have that aspect.

Sally, what about you? What do you love about living in small town Nebraska.

What I love about living in small town, Nebraska. Sidney especially, is all the generational collaboration that everybody has, much like Carrie said about living in a small town. Everybody knows what's going on. People really do care. We need to get people involved in the museums. We need to get people involved in organizations that are low in numbers. If you want to keep seeing these fun things, get out there and volunteer. I love Sydney. I love small town Nebraska. I just love it.

Well, thank you so much, ladies for being with us today. And we're really excited about your upcoming events. We just wish you the best of luck.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

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