The Aud offers good prices, but falls short with Oktoberfest authenticity

Every year I await Kitchener-Waterloo’s famous Oktoberfest with anticipation. The dirndls and lederhosen, schnitzel and sausage, polka and chicken dancing and of course, beer make this event a unique experience.

On Oct. 7 the Sheepdogs were headlining and The Reason opened at the Kitchener Auditorium Oktoberfest event. With tickets costing $15 it was cheaper than many other Oktoberfest venues.

Several people in line were wearing traditional German dirndls and lederhosen, however; inside the auditorium the people were not dressed in the traditional Oktoberfest garb I had seen outside.

Instead, many were dressed in black and wearing typical rock concert attire. There was a large age range at the venue, although most of the crowd appeared to be in their mid to late 20s.

The Reason opened the show and they played well but did not perform any traditional German or Oktoberfest music. I expected that the event coordinators would play some of the Oktoberfest music during the set change. However, it became obvious that there would not be any Oktoberfest music at the Kitchener Auditorium that night when “TNT” by AC/DC was turned on.

Once The Sheepdogs started playing a few minutes later, the crowd took to moshing and crowd surfing. Even a few long-haired, bearded 60-something-year-old men danced energetically around the long benches of the Aud. While The Sheepdogs played their set successfully, like The Reason, the band didn’t experiment with traditional Oktoberfest music. The event lacked authenticity because of this, and it felt more like a rock concert than an Oktoberfest hall.

Feeling late-night hunger coming on, I made my way to the food stand and deliberated over schnitzel or sausage. Both were priced around $5. I decided to try the sausage, without sauerkraut, but with onions, and it didn’t disappoint.

Large bags of delicious beer nuts were also sold for around $5. The less authentic pizza was also available and it got rave reviews from those that preferred a more Canadian snack.

Beer and liquor were naturally sold at the event and after waiting for half an hour in line, I was able to purchase beer tickets for $5.50. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the beer and liquor tickets were priced around $5, as I have attended other Oktoberfest events where the beer tickets costed about $8.

The Kitchener Auditorium Oktoberfest event fell short in authenticity and tradition. However, for those looking for a good concert and good prices, the Aud may be the best venue.


Want to read more about Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest events? Check out The Cord’s reviews of Concordia, Bingemans and Queensmount.

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