Maybe it reminds someone in charge too much of This is Oktoberfest?
OktoberZest
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
As much as I like OktoberZest, I was kind of hoping a new show would take over. Ah well, still way better than Entwined.
Not sure, I think someone in another thread posted that the performers were on a six month contract so that would put them through August and the start of HOS. Oompah is on the schedule until Memorial Day weekend then nothing is listed after that. I don't think they would learn an entire new show just after 3 months. While I thought Octoberzest could be greatly improved I think it is still much better than this Oompah show.
So then it’s likely returning. I actually have been listening to the show (courtesy of either castle o Sullivan or chicken king bgw on yt) and enjoying it a lot
I hope it will return. The stage looks so bare currently I hope the aren't messing with us and just adding the old props back for just the look. I wonder if they will incorporate some of the current songs into Octoberzest.
And Oktoberzest has returned! It’s now listed to start shows this weekend!
I saw the show on Sunday and I enjoyed it overall. They added a new song and changed the staging a little bit. The maypole wreath stayed on the stage throughout the show because they attached the ribbons back to the facades at the end of the opening number. I thought that was a very smart move because it made the stage look more “alive” and happy.
There were a few opening weekend jitters, like, instead of singing “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus” (In Munich stands a Hofbräuhaus) they were singing “Ein München steht ein Hofbräuhaus” and pronounced Hofbräuhaus totally wrong. It may sound like a small nitpick, but it’s the title of the song. Lol. It was a good chuckle.
Still, it was a good show and much better than previous seasons. I’m sure they will iron out issues like the one mentioned above as the season goes on.
There were a few opening weekend jitters, like, instead of singing “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus” (In Munich stands a Hofbräuhaus) they were singing “Ein München steht ein Hofbräuhaus” and pronounced Hofbräuhaus totally wrong. It may sound like a small nitpick, but it’s the title of the song. Lol. It was a good chuckle.
Still, it was a good show and much better than previous seasons. I’m sure they will iron out issues like the one mentioned above as the season goes on.
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I honestly don’t know why I got such mixed reactions when I posted saying the show was back. It’s a good show, especially when compared to a lot of stuff that has come out since then.
I haven’t seen this year’s version, but my problems with past version of the show are that it’s tonally inconsistent and it’s unpleasantly over-the-top for what it needs to be.
Regarding tonal inconsistency, it bounces between traditional German song and dance, modern twists on the traditional stuff, big musical-style numbers, and other bizarre scenes like the wood chopping. Taken individually, each element could be interesting, but there’s no cohesion connecting them and the show has never had a good flow between each part. I’ve never felt like I can “immerse” myself in what the show is trying to do, since it always feels like such a haphazard mishmash of concepts.
Regarding being over-the-top, I also dislike OktoberZest because it feels so inauthentic, for many of the same reasons we already mentioned. Why do we need such a zany musical-style show in the Festhaus while we eat? Why the effort into making the show so “different” and giving it so much “production value”? I loved the Oompah Band that the park had in the Festhaus last year. It was fun, festive, entertaining, and simple — delivering exactly the sort of German beer hall entertainment Das Festhaus needs. It felt “authentic,” you could immerse yourself in what it was trying to be, and it complimented your time in the Festhaus rather than barraging you with a big musical production.
I was disappointed when I found out OktoberZest was returning because that meant the demise of the Oompah Band, which I thought was a vastly better fit for the Festhaus.
Regarding tonal inconsistency, it bounces between traditional German song and dance, modern twists on the traditional stuff, big musical-style numbers, and other bizarre scenes like the wood chopping. Taken individually, each element could be interesting, but there’s no cohesion connecting them and the show has never had a good flow between each part. I’ve never felt like I can “immerse” myself in what the show is trying to do, since it always feels like such a haphazard mishmash of concepts.
Regarding being over-the-top, I also dislike OktoberZest because it feels so inauthentic, for many of the same reasons we already mentioned. Why do we need such a zany musical-style show in the Festhaus while we eat? Why the effort into making the show so “different” and giving it so much “production value”? I loved the Oompah Band that the park had in the Festhaus last year. It was fun, festive, entertaining, and simple — delivering exactly the sort of German beer hall entertainment Das Festhaus needs. It felt “authentic,” you could immerse yourself in what it was trying to be, and it complimented your time in the Festhaus rather than barraging you with a big musical production.
I was disappointed when I found out OktoberZest was returning because that meant the demise of the Oompah Band, which I thought was a vastly better fit for the Festhaus.
I agree with everything that @Mushroom said, but also, honestly, at the end of the day, there's only one main season Das Festhaus show I will accept: This is Oktoberfest. It was the heart and soul of not only Das Festhaus, but of the entirety of Oktoberfest. It was one of the most iconic, most prominent, most popular park icons. It is featured in countless family photo collections with adults waltzing or children doing the chicken dance. The number of people with nostalgia for TiO is astounding. We have needed it back since the day it left.
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Count me as one of those people with nostalgia for TiO. How hard would it be to tear down the stage and bring that show back. Or just leave the stage and bring the show back.
Scott's gone, so the stage could be replaced away from the current monstrosity. However, that costs money and as had been depicted in other threads is highly unlikely to happen. That and the full TiS band of skilled musicians may cost more than the skeleton-crew band and pumped in sound they're currently using.
Oktoberzest has been really toned down this year. They don’t have the live band anymore. Also, they got rid of the wood chopping part.
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It's absolutely criminal not to have a live band playing polkas in Das Festhaus during the main season.
I'm hoping its just early and they will add them as well as the components to the top of boxes on the sides.
More SEAS penny pinching cost cutting at the cost of the guest experience.
Perhaps it’s not such a hot take, but I’m tired of OktoberZest by now. I would rather have it than nothing but I was just thinking about how I am at the point of wanting another lavish musical production like Roll Out The Barrel, but about folk music in general. The show would play through like an old German TV musical show. Think The Lawrence Welk Show, but visiting iconic landmarks for each song.
Anyway this type of grandiose (Gasparich-style) song would start the show, but it would include lyrics.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Anyway this type of grandiose (Gasparich-style) song would start the show, but it would include lyrics.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source