30th ANNUAL BOCKFEST PARADE
Details
OPEN TO ALL MEMBERS (Not Required to be a Dues Paying Member)
Parade Begins 6 PM in front of Arnolds Bar & Grill (Remember the tv program, Cheers?) Arrive by 5:15 for best parking (SEE Parking Photo below) and photographing people in costumes. IT’S A PURE BLAST. Meet 5:45 pm few feet east of Arnolds at alleyway and head to best vantage point to capture the parade.
“Bockfest” is an annual beer festival held in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio on the first full weekend of March. It is the oldest German-style bock beer festival in the United States.[1] It drew an estimated 20,000 attendees in 2013[2] and 30,000 in 2014.[3] Bockfest originated from the 1992 special release of a beer by Hudepohl Brewing Company. Hudepohl released a bock beer under the name of the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company, the largest pre-prohibition brewery in Cincinnati. Bockfest is a celebration of bock beer, Cincinnati’s brewing heritage, the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, and the coming of Spring.”
The Bockfest Parade is Cincinnati’s funkiest and most entertaining parade. It can be watched from the street or from a number of participating venues along the route.
Friday night of Bockfest, March 1, is the perfect way to end your week and kick off the best festival in Cincinnati! Watch the best parade in town. OVCC will focus on the opening Friday evening parade meeting in front of Arnolds Bar before 5:00 PM. The parade will start to form their, 210 East 8th Street and kicks off at 6:00 PM. Catch people preparing to participate in the Parade. Sunset will be at 6:30 PM.
The Bockfest parade is traditionally lead by a goat pulling a keg and the reigning Sausage Queen along with the official parade marshal. It travels up Sycamore Street to 12th Street to Main Street to Bockfest Hall and ends with the blessing of the bock beer. This officially marks the beginning of a weekend of festive celebration that might end in blaming a goat on your horizontal position. Goats, the German Renaissance, beer, irreverence, and originality are all highly esteemed aspects of a parade entry. There are no fire trucks for the kids. In the past, entries have included faux-monks pulling a Trojan goat, futon queens, German beer bands, a four-poster bed pulled by slave labor, goats on Segway’s, a leather-clad whip wench with a huge whip, and patriotic chants of “drink more beer.” As usual, you can bring your favorite canine to walk with “The Bocking Dogs.”