Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest

The food was fantastic, and the entertainment was excellent! I'm sure you'll want to return.

This was by far the most disappointing event I've ever attended. The food lines were two hours long, and they stopped serving the so-called “American” food (vegan bratwurst) at 7 PM. The sound system was awful, and the tables were dirty. It felt like an insult to have to pay for this experience, and I believe it should be banned. My advice? Just stay home. It was truly terrible.

The line for ordering German food was unbelievable! We waited 45 minutes just to place our order, and then had to stand in another line to enter the area. Overall, we ended up waiting for 1.5 hours! The organization was not good at all.

This photo summarizes it. If you wait for 2 hours to buy a beer, this festival is for you!

Ok. Our experience is not the norm, so don't be overly judgemental of the festival. Here's the good: fun music, entertaining competitions, and good food. Now, it went all wrong for our group. They were severely understaffed the day we went and it was so very bad. We didn't get to enjoy anything because we spent over 2 hours of the three hours we were there just trying to get food. And not a lot of food. We literally wanted 4 Bavarian pretzels and a single vegan sausage on sauerkraut. I stood alone in line and then waiting for my food (I was the vegan sausage on sauerkraut) for 2 hours and 20 minutes. I was there for a bachelor party weekend and the group spent most of the time just waiting on food and waiting in separate areas. It was so very bad. I felt bad for the 2 waitresses I personally saw. They were rushing like crazy while trying to not look like they were rushing and they were so friendly. People were very angry. My group ended up finally giving up being there, and left to go back to the cabin we rented. Also, hey overzealous security guard! I get that you didn't want people carrying out alcohol, but....when you watch us chug the beer to get it quickly finished, watch another guard check all our steins individually, and then stop us all again to check each of us individually again.... it's kind of ridiculous. The man stood there watching us get checked (we all made eye contact and were standing a few feet from him the whole time) and then stopped us to do it again immediately after. Beer doesn't magically disappear and reappear. I used to work security and you don't have to be a jerk to people. Anyway, I'm giving it 3 stars for the potential I saw and for the nice staff (minus security guy). The purple sauerkraut was also tasty.