By admin 
This weekend, Cal Expo and the California State Fair team tapped their first beer keg in the Oktoberfest celebration scene when they launched the brand-new Saktoberfest event.
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Over two days, Cal Expo’s The Cove outdoor event center was draped with blue-and-white in honor of Bavaria, with fall leaves and photo backdrops scattered between long tables and lawn games. To its left, a biergarten and food stands offered what most came to indulge in: Oktoberfest beer and German food.
A project that’s been in the works for the California State Fair team came to life Friday afternoon and continued through Saturday night, with visitors of all ages enjoying the arrival of cooler weather alongside a commemorative stein of lager.
“For us, beer … is a celebration of what California is, it’s the bounty of what California provides,” said Alex Alcantar, marketing director for the California State Fair.
What did the first Saktoberfest include?
Though it was no Munich Oktoberfest bash, the Cal Expo celebration featured a variety of activities and games.
A yodeling contest Friday and competitions for wife-carrying and stein-holding on Saturday tested guests’ skills and offered the chance to earn prizes. Throughout the day, live bands and a festival DJ serenaded attendees with modern American and German music alike.
Games like cornhole, ringer darts and Kubb — a lawn game involving teams tossing wooden blocks to knock over their opponents’ blocks — were set up on small turf patches. If kids weren’t into any of the games, a crafting corner provided activities to keep them engaged throughout the afternoon.
“Yes, (beer) is part of the tradition … but this is a family-friendly event,” Alcantar said. “That’s really what this is about, is people come out and have a great time.”
Saktoberfest also included a cultural and agricultural educational aspect, through the Master Food Preservers program, a nonprofit seeking to help Californians preserve their food safely and avoid food waste.
Volunteers trained in proper food preservation through the University of California Cooperative Extension’s Sacramento County office brought homemade samples of sauerkraut and offered attendees the chance to create their own pickled red onions.
Wendi Weston, Sacramento County program coordinator for Master Food Preservers, said cultural and local education are core aspects of the group’s work, as California’s diverse population brings a melting pot of cuisines with it.
“(For sauerkraut), if I was German, I’d probably include caraway seeds,” Weston said. “Coming from South and Central America … they have a really sweet profile, so they might add some beautiful sweet carrots and spices.
“But the krauting itself is universal,” she said.
What was the Saktoberfest food like?
Schnitzel, bratwurst and soft pretzels dominated the event’s menu, put together by chef Tim Benham of Oak View Group Hospitality, the State Fair’s food and beverage partner.
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Brats in buns were piled high with brown mustard and sauerkraut, while a sausage sampler platter (for $18) featured three types of German sausages and spaetzle.
To ground the event in its California roots, the team served a sauerbraten with tri-tip, fusing California’s barbecue culture with German traditions.
“(Benham is) very passionate about that, he was all over it,” said Corey Brandt, general manager for OVG Hospitality. “He brought (the tri-tip sauerbraten) in my office one day, I’m like, ‘Yeah, bro, that’s very good.”’
On the beverage side, Brandt’s team partnered with local and international breweries to obtain limited-run kegs of Oktoberfest beers. For $20, guests could fill a commemorative plastic stein with one of these brews.
At home, Urban Roots sent a handful of kegs of its Märzen, while FiftyFifty Brewing in Truckee offered some of its Vienna-style Oktoberfest lager. From across the pond, the German state-owned Rothaus brewery sent kegs of its Tannenzäpfle Pilsner, brewed in the Black Forest of southwestern Germany.
“Being in California, we always want to have local brews, especially in the Sacramento area,” Brandt said. “(It makes) it more authentic to have a German beer.”
Will Saktoberfest return next year?
Alcantar said the California State Fair team envisioned its Oktoberfest celebration as a recurring annual event to supplement the state fair. As the fair is set to move to the fall in 2027 — from Sept. 17-Oct. 3 — there are a couple of options for how the second annual Saktoberfest will be held.
As the State Fair is a historic institution of California, Alcantar said he hopes to keep the two events as their own, potentially hosting next year’s Saktoberfest after the State Fair has been packed away for the year.
“This is something that we want to have as a separate entity going forward,” he said. “Something that we produce in-house, and we take pride in that.”
But Brandt said his team is considering expanding the Oktoberfest celebrations through some of the fair’s 17 days running, to keep the festivities high.
“(We could) roll with what we had with the Beer Den last year, make that into a fair-long Oktoberfest,” Brandt said. “We’re still playing with it.”
This story was originally published October 11, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline “Cal Expo inaugural Saktoberfest grounds German tradition in CA culture. ‘Prost!’.”
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