NEWBERRY — The official crowd count is in for 2019 Newberry Oktoberfest and despite the rain, the City of Newberry hit a record number of people with 30,000.

“This is the same number that we felt we hit in 2018, but advertised as just under. We use Jacob’s Method of crowd counting each year, breaking down the event area by sections. The Food Court/Biergartens/Music areas are counted as our most densely packed area — followed by Main Street Booth Corridor as another densely populated section. Kindertown is moderately crowded, followed by the Boyce Street Corridor that has no booths, but sees moderate foot traffic. We did not count the area where the classic cars were to be as they had to leave early in the event due to rain, thus there were no visitors to their section of the event. So, the official count is at 30,000,” said Mary Alex Kopp, Tourism & Events manager with the City of Newberry Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

With 30,000 people at Newberry Oktoberfest, there was always a consistent number of people. The day started out a bit slower, Kopp attributed that to the cloudy weather — but after that she said the crowd really didn’t start to dissipate until 4 p.m.

“The weather benefited the festival, if we didn’t have any rain and just cool, it would have been ideal — but people didn’t seem to mind it. I heard from a few of our vendors, and downtown folks that this was a banner year as far as sales are concerned,” Kopp said.

The City of Newberry experienced this first hand when it came to the sale of Newberry Oktoberfest shirts and hoodies. Kopp said people really seemed to like the blue shirts and hoodies, and with the weather being a bit cooler — many hoodies and long sleeve shirts were sold.

“From a birds-eye view of the festival, we are very pleased not only with the turn out and participation, but with the reports of sales record from our vendors and various downtown businesses. The 2019 Oktoberfest was a banner year for Newberry for sure. In addition to the general festival itself being a fun day for Newberry, new safety plans and vendor set up policies led to a very smooth day. We plan to do much of the same in 2020, but as always our staff at PRT, Newberry Fire Department, Newberry Police Department, and public works will continue to work to find ways to improve year after year,” Kopp said.

Newberry Oktoberfest drew a crowd of 30,000 this year, and this allowed for a healthy Best Traditional German Dress Contest. Pictured are the winners, and one winner’s dad, of this year’s contest Bob Coleman, Amelia Neal, Susie Coleman, Watson Neal, Ellie Bradberry and Bennie Bradberry.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_DSC_0357-1.jpgNewberry Oktoberfest drew a crowd of 30,000 this year, and this allowed for a healthy Best Traditional German Dress Contest. Pictured are the winners, and one winner’s dad, of this year’s contest Bob Coleman, Amelia Neal, Susie Coleman, Watson Neal, Ellie Bradberry and Bennie Bradberry. Andrew Wigger | The Newberry Observer

By Andrew Wigger

awigger@championcarolinas.com

Reach Andrew Wigger @ 803-276-0625 ext. 1867 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.