Many dream of Oktoberfest in Munich, but few of us obviously ever make it.
But stop crying in your can of Coors, ok? and take advantage of The Social Concierge’s highly ambitious plan to bring Munich to Vancouver.
Yes, the folks behind Diner en Blanc and the Deighton Cup are kicking off the inaugural Harvest Haus this week, with a food and drink experience based on ye olde European harvest festivals.
Starting this Thursday (Oct. 2), the Social Concierge will transform Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza into the Bavarian-themed hall Harvest Haus Halle, with six sittings taking place over the weekend. It’s the Vancouver-area Oktoberfest celebration to end all off-Vancouver-area Oktoberfest celebrations.
“I wanted to do something that plays off all these traditional European harvest festivals of old, and give them a bit of a modern twist,” says the Social Concierge’s Tyson Villeneuve.
The hall – sorry, I mean halle – will include German-style long tables with a seating plan for the hundreds of attendees. There’ll be local breweries present along with European beers brought in for the event. Each attendee will be given a stein, which should certainly add to the European ambience and will presumably be used to cheer each other with great merriment as we all break out in to song and spill beer on one another.
But Villeneuve says the beer is just one aspect organizers want to highlight at Harvest Haus.
“We want to bring that harvest culture, that aspect of food back to the forefront, as well as the beers,” he says.
Organizers have teamed up with Sole Food Street Farms, who’ll be providing locally grown (and extremely fresh) vegetables for all the VIP food items. A Marktplatz (read: marketplace) will be set up with authentic European food stalls serving traditional Oktoberfest food, including fresh-made pretzels, bratwurst and schnitzel, which is easily the most satisfying food-related word in any language.
There will also be “artistic food displays” and an interactive gardening display, which Villeneuve admits “doesn’t sound super exciting, but it’s actually really fun.”
If garden displays aren’t your bag, take comfort knowing there will be professional actors performing, weaving a story throughout each of the four-hour sittings that tells of “500 years of cultural history.” This will include DJs flown in from Germany, traditional folk dancers, and hopefully a whole lotta lederhosen, though this has yet to be verified.
General admissions tickets start at $25. VIP tickets start at $40, which gets attendees access to the Bavarian Feast. For more information, check out the Harvest Haus website.
