Overview Oaktoberfest in the Dimond is a free, family-friendly street festival that takes over Oakland's historic Dimond District for a weekend every October. It mixes a Bavarian beer festival with a neighborhood block party: craft beer from dozens of Bay Area breweries, German food, five music and dance stages, makers and a whole street for kids. Two neighborhood non-profits, the Dimond Improvement Association and the Dimond Merchants Association, own it, and proceeds go back into the district. On site The festival fills seven blocks around Fruitvale Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard with about 250 vendors, a Bavarian dining hall, a biergarten, homebrewers' alley and the Family Strasse with its root beer garden. Stages run German brass and polka, Bay Area bands, DJs and Dancing in the Dimond, where dance crews battle on a street dance floor. Sponsors can put their name on the whole festival, a stage, a garden or a themed zone, or on the commemorative glass steins, festival t-shirts and root beer mugs guests take home. Audience Tens of thousands of people come through over the two days, most of them from Oakland and the wider East Bay, with visitors from across the Bay Area. The crowd averages about 35 years old and is culturally diverse, with a real spread of incomes and education. Families spend the day on the kids' street while adults 21 and over buy tasting packages, and dog owners bring their pets. Talent and Influencers The stages book Bay Area favorites and German acts, including Andre Thierry & Accordion Soul, Orchestra Gold, Polkalicious, Deutscher Musik Verein, Schwabenland and resident DJ BlackWoman. Dancing in the Dimond is hosted by About the Music and the All The Way Live Foundation, with DJs Shortkut, Eric Groove and DJ Kincaid, a breaking battle and Oakland turf dancers from Turf Inc. Track record Founders Daniel Swafford and Stan Dodson started the festival with the late beer columnist Bill Brand, reviving the German beer-garden history of MacArthur Boulevard. It has grown from a one-day block party of a few thousand people into a two-day festival, and East Bay Express readers voted it Best Festival. Vendor and activation space sells out each year. Brand presence The Kanna Dispensary / Two Star Market Stage, the Supervisor Nate Miley Family Stage, the Excelsior German Center Bavarian Hall and the Head-Royce School Family Strasse carry sponsor names. Other partners include Safeway, Farmer Joe's Marketplace, EBMUD, Little Caesars, Loard's Ice Cream, Shasta Pop, Longman's Gin, Drake's Brewing, Fathers Brewing, IKE Smart City, The Oaklandside, Visit Oakland and the City of Oakland. Northeastern University named the Main Stage in a past year.