Oktemberfest 2022 will take place Thurs Sept 22 through Sun Sept 25
Our event including the parade and weekend events’ staging area will be similar to the layout done last year to accommodate having the event in the downtown district. As an owner/operator of a business within the staging area, the purpose of this letter is to enlist your help, cooperation, and support.
The streets in the downtown area including portions of Main St between 3rd St and 3rd Ave, and Center St, 1st and 2nd St, and 1st and 2nd Ave between Church and State St.
Portions of these streets will remain closed through most of the weekend for the safety of everyone attending or operating the event. Some sections will open overnight Thurs, for business Fri, others will remain closed overnight Fri and Sat.
Please be aware there will be restricted vehicle traffic and limited on street parking in these designated areas during the weekend’s events. (Particularly along Main St, Center, and S 1st Ave.) So that we can keep emergency routes open, and not risk damage to your vehicles, please plan to park your vehicles in one of the nearby area parking lots or on one of the side streets.
We currently plan to have some of the streets closed starting at various times, Center St will close in the morning from Main to State. The rest will happen starting at about 3 pm Thurs Sept 22, and mostly reopened for normal vehicle traffic by approximately 6 pm Sun Sept 25, or as soon as time permits.
We are including a more detailed timeline of when to expect certain streets to close, so you may plan as needed
Thank You in advance for your cooperation.
Oktemberfest Board
Approximate timeline of details for street and parking lot closures
Monday, September 19th
- S 1st Ave and City parking lot south of Annex - close starting Monday evening between 6 and 8 pm, allowing outflow traffic to clear out.
Tuesday, September 20th
- 8 am S 1st Ave and County Annex lot – Carnival staging/setup to begin
Wednesday, September 21st
- Main; between Center and 1st Ave - limited traffic flow after 6 pm for parking food vendors on south side of the street.
Thursday, September 22nd
- 8 to 9 am – Stage gets set at Main and Center. North side of intersection
- 3 pm start to limit traffic downtown - outflow traffic allowed
- 5 pm – greater downtown closed to through traffic.
- Main closed from 3rd St to 2nd Ave, Main crossings at 2nd and 1st St closed. Limited travel at Main and 1st Ave
- Open back up for Thurs overnight around 9:30/10pm
- *Main likely to remain closed/limited travel from Center to 1st Ave overnight Thurs to Sun evening.
Friday, September 23rd
- 3 pm start to limit traffic downtown - outflow traffic allowed – we had concerns in 2019 and 2021 for closing the greater downtown area for all day Thurs and Fri, so we are going to try to accommodate.
- 5 pm - downtown closed to through traffic.
- Main closed from 3rd St to 2nd Ave, Main crossings at 2nd and 1st St closed.
- * Leave 1 block radius of Main and Center closed Fri evening until Sun, when we open rest of downtown cross streets on Fri night.
- 1st & 2nd St. crossings to open overnight
Saturday, September 24th
- Close streets by about 6:30/7am for 5k/10k route and downtown areas, parade route/staging areas by about 8 am –
- Open remainder of parade route/staging areas at the end of the parade. Everything west of 3rd St to open.
- Leave downtown closed overnight Sat. for 1 block radius of Main/Center
- Main closed from 3rd St to 2nd Ave,
- Main crossings at 2nd and 1st St closed during the day/evening; opened overnight.
Sunday, September 25th
- Main closed from 3rd St to 2nd Ave,
- Main crossings at 1st St closed, 2nd St(maybe?)
- Event closes at 5pm, 1 block radius to remain closed until about 6 pm
- Slow open of parts of downtown after 5 pm, along Main - Center to 1st Ave to open last to allow craft and food vendors load out Sun evening.
Monday, September 26th
- Stage pickup
- Carnival to move out any remaining pieces, likely to relocate to fairgrounds until they leave town.
- *NOTE: Not all of downtown will necessarily be cleaned up by the end of the day Sun evening. Trash bins will be emptied, and we have contracted with someone to do a final cleanup of the area on Mon during the day.