Wurstfest

Wurstfest, now coming up on its 8^th year, is the most popular winter fest in this area. It has it all: great food, wonderful beer from Germany, good wines, OFest type polka bands and non-​stop fun for the whole family.

This is the best winter festival in Oregon. Great food, great beverages, great music. A really fun time! Great fun

Wursfest is located in Mount Angel, Oregon, an affable small town located among lots of very wet grassy farmland and medium houses. It feels nice and serene with the small roads and isolation from Portland. Wursfest is held in a nice looking farmhouse.
The Mt. Angel Wursfest was okay. After exiting the freeway, you go through some small towns and then reach Wurstfest. It’s in Mt. Angel, which is a small town along various small farming communities that mainly just have homes and schools. The farms are beautiful because they have the nice wet green grass that would be dry and brown if in Texas. Be careful with your directions and plan on Google Maps before, because the street signs were very confusing.
You enter a small town and then you park on the sides of a dirt road. It’s in a big, but welcoming country music, kind of a stereotypical dance hall.
The tickets were about $ 5. The lines would differ based on what you are going to. Mt. Angel Sausage Company was the main vendor, but there were various other barbeque vendors. Lots of berries, nuts and baked goods were available. The sausage had a long line and it tasted just okay. I had a biscuit and it was good.
When you order, you can mainly take it to big tables in the auditorium. Throughout, an accordion will play as by tradition. You will be bumping up against a lot of people and the tables are in-​between narrow spaces. It will even be crowded trying to get to the restroom, but not usually in the restrooms themselves.
I loved the lush countryside on the drive there. But the festival was overpriced and the lunch was at least $ 12. The vendors and the atmosphere were okay.
If you are from that part of the valley, this might make for an afternoon. If you’re from Portland, just cruise Hawthorne and you’ll get it better.

We haven’t been to the Octoberfest here yet, and not sure if we will after this fest. $ 5 to get in. $ 5 for kinda small beer. $ 6 for bratwurst on bun. Not too much going on (there was a German band playing however). Very small. I’m a sucker for a «fest,» but this one… nah. Basically spent $ 32 for lunch for two!

Neither the best fest, nor the worst fest. It is somewhere in between.
The 4^th annual Wurstfest was held February 17 — 18 and would be a nice introduction to Mt. Angel, but certainly not a substitute for attending Oktoberfest in September. It is really a way to attract visitors to this small hamlet in the Willamette Valley during the off season.
The most fascinating part for me is that it is billed as a «Mt. Angel Celebration of German Sausage,» and yet my favorite sausage place in town, Mt. Angel Sausage Co., was not a vendor. I am sure there is an interesting back story there…
The festival was held in the new Mt. Angel Community Center, Festhalle. Since everything was in one spot, it was easy to find the festival on Highway 214 and free parking was a snap. This is very different from Oktoberfest which pretty much takes over the entire town and has dozens of venues.
Admission was $ 10 for adults and children were free. When you entered, you were able to select a nice wine glass, beer glass or stein as a souvenir. The vendors were an interesting mix of local businesses and smaller residential vendors that traveled to the event. My favorites were the Urban German, St. Josef’s Winery and the mustard sold by the sisters from the neighboring Benedictine Monastery. But compared to the spectacle of Oktoberfest, this was an elegant, modest affair. Lots of folks dressed up in their German finery and you could purchase your own lederhosen, dirndls and hats.
It was a happy festival, filled with music and a few dancers, but having been a visitor to Oktoberfest, it struck me as a pleasant footnote. Certainly not a main attraction.