Main Street discusses Oktoberfest

This year’s Oktoberfest was a focus of discussion during the Main Street Thermopolis board meeting April 23.

The discussion centered on renaming the event Oktobrewfest, as the board is wanting to move towards being a brew fest along with being an Oktoberfest.

Changing the name took time for the group to agree on because of the fear of confusing people by changing the brand.

“Whatever we pick we definitely have to stick with going forward,” Main Street Thermopolis chairman Stefanie Gilbert said.

But in the end the group agreed to rename the event Oktobrewfest.

Moreover, Main Street member Mike Pierce said bringing breweries to the festival could be expensive.

During the Lander festival, for example, brewers are paid $275 to come. Food and lodging are also provided by the host organization.

“That’s up front money we’re going to have to come up with,” Pierce said.

Other towns do not pay visiting brewers, but Pierce said those festivals are seeing a decrease in the number of brewers coming to them.

“That seems good, somewhere between $200 and $275,” Gilbert said.

Further, they discussed the cost of attending the brew fest.

The first plan is to sell an unlimited beer bracelet for somewhere between $20 and $30 dollars.

But members wanted to make sure there was an inexpensive alternative like getting a bracelet.

An option to just buy food and a beer was something members also want to see.

Cleaning up downtown was also discussed during the event.

The group will be picking up garbage and doing other routine cleanup to the downtown district May 7 at 6 p.m.

The group will meet outside of the Black Bear Café.

As part of the cleanup, members will be planting flowers in front of businesses that are interested. However, they are still trying to decide who will water the flowers.

Main Street is also working to get someone to repaint the brands on a statue downtown.

Lea Schoenewald said she reached out to the Thermopolis FFA chapter to see if they would do it.

“I contacted Britton Van Heule, and the ag kids want to do this,” Schoenewald said.

The brands need to be repainted about once every three years. Currently, many of the brands are so weathered they can barely be seen.

Main Street members will also be doing Main Street 101 training with the state Main Street officials on May 6 at 6 p.m.

Additionally, Gilbert and Schoenewald discussed their time at the Main Street National Convention.

One of the things they brought back was a fundraising idea that they think could work in Thermopolis.

They met someone who does novelty Christmas ornaments, and their idea is to use images from downtown on the ornaments. Pictures of old buildings, the downtown or even a picture of Roundtop were options.

Most members agreed doing a different image each year would create an interesting collectors item.