Overview Columbus Oktoberfest is a free-admission German festival where Saturday's strongman games close with a 508-pound Bavarian stone lift, run by the Schmidt family of Schmidt's over a September weekend at the Ohio Expo Center. The beer halls, stages, marketplace and kids' area sit under 100,000 square feet of covered space on the Ohio State Fairgrounds, so the weekend runs rain or shine. George F. Schmidt started the festival in 1965. On site In 2026 the gates opened Friday at 5 p.m. and ran to midnight Friday and Saturday, closing at 8 on Sunday. Heidelberg Hall and the Hofbräuhaus Prost Hall carry the bands, and Austrian dancers work the Glockenspiel Stage through the weekend. Friday evening brings the keg tapping together with the Vier Meiler, the Brat Trot run that M3S Sports puts on. Saturday belongs to the Gemütlichkeit Games in the ODNR Amphitheater: the BarBarian press, Steinstossen, an amateur stone lift, keg over the bar and a keg toss for height, then the Steinheben at 7. The Kinderplatz runs family acts all day in Natural Resources Park, and a Marktplatz sells crafts. Food and beer are card only; cash converts to a fest card in Heidelberg Hall. Talent and Influencers The 2026 bill had the Klaberheads, the Franz Klaber Orchestra that went into the festival's Hall of Fame in 2018, alongside Largemouth Brass Band, the Brass Band of Columbus, Stein Hoist, Hip Replacements and Deluxe Suite, with Alphorn Grüezi on the Friday tapping. Track record The festival began in Schiller Park and moved between German Village sites and the Expo Center. The German Village Society canceled it in July 2009, citing profit and weather; the Schmidt family took it over that year, and partnered with the Ohio Expo Center to bring it back to the fairgrounds. A Columbus Oktoberfest Hall of Fame was founded in 2011 in George Schmidt's name, and Carla Epler became its first woman inductee in 2021. Brand presence Partners attach to the places people stand. Hofbräuhaus Columbus puts its name on the Prost Hall, and the festival sells presenting rights on the stages, the Kinderplatz, the kids' inflatable zone, the Gemütlichkeit Games and the Friday run. Mid-Ohio Foodbank, Lifeline of Ohio and SafeComm appear as Oktoberfest partners, and the Schmidt family handles sponsorship directly.