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Bockbierfest

This festival celebrates spring with a variety of domestic and imported Bockbiers and lot of good food including “Bockwurst”. Soda is available for the non-beer drinkers! Spielmannszug Milwaukee Drum and Bugle Corps will open the festival with a musical performance.

Dance music by the Alte Kameraden Brass Band from Freistadt, WI. Contests will be held throughout the evening culminating with the annual crowning of the new Bockbier King and Queen.

This is the only German event held in April after a long cold Wisconsin winter!!!  It is very similar to an Oktoberfest event and is the only festival of its kind in the Milwaukee Area.

Many friends and family have made this a “reunion” event meeting annually, bringing their entire family and enjoying the “Gemütlichkeit”.

This event will be held at the Okauchee Lions Community Park, N49W34400 E Wisconsin Avenue, Okauchee WI 53069 on May 4, 2024. Hours are 11:30am to 9:00pm. Admission is $5.00. Come and join us!

GermanFest

In 1981, the Spielmannszug was approached to help plan a new ethnic festival at the Lakefront Summerfest Grounds.  President Hans Schmidt sent Cornelia Ille to the first meeting to represent the Spielmannszug. Only 5 people attended that very first meeting at the Schwabenhof and the Spielmannszug is proud to say that we were part of GermanFest from the very start! We continue to work (volunteer work) and perform every year at this, the largest German festival in the United States! Our hard working members make sure that there are plenty of Potato Pancakes for the crowds and our Players and Tanzsterne keep everyone entertained at the Mardi Gras Show!

Karneval

Carnival or Mardi Gras goes by many names in German, depending on the region and dialect:

  • Karneval (Rhineland, former Roman settlements)
  • Fasching (Austria, Bavaria, Berlin)
  • Fastnacht (Baden, Switzerland)

Whether it’s Fasching or Karneval, it is a time to let off steam and live it up before the Lenten period that once called for fasting (die Fastenzeit). It is this fasting tradition that gave the celebration its Fastnacht name (“night before fasting”).

Today there are elaborate parades (Umzüge) in all the large and small communities where Fasching is celebrated. Another part of the celebration involves Carnival royalty (princes, princesses) and a sort of “counter-government” during the season. The Cologne Rosenmontagumzug is an event broadcast each year on German television, similar to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York. It features colorful floats with caricatured figures mocking local and national politicians and other personalities or events.

Germans call the pre-Lenten Carnival season die Närrische Saison (“the foolish season”) or die Fünfte Jahreszeit (“the fifth season”). The official start of the Fasching season is the 11th day of the 11th month (Elfte  Elfte, Nov. 11) at 11:11am, depending on the region.

Spielmannszug Milwaukee celebrates Karneval by holding a Prinzenkrönung (Crowning) every November, a Maskenball (Masquerade Ball) every January or February (depending on when Lent falls), and a Lumpenball (Hobo Ball) every February or March (after Lent). Please check our event calendar for the current dates.