With a rainy Austin City Limits weekend in sight, Austin Saengerrunde\u2019s Austoberfest provides an indoor alternative and safe haven from the weather. The 14th annual event, taking place this Saturday, celebrates a mix of Austin and German culture with live music, sausage sampling, beer and bowling.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1879 by German immigrants in Texas, the Austin Saengerrunde is Austin\u2019s oldest ethnic organization. Austoberfest will take place near campus at Scholz Garten, America\u2019s oldest beer garden and Texas\u2019s oldest business. The Saengerrunde prides itself on its history, striving to blend its heritage and current home together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been around a long time, so we\u2019re part of Austin history,\u201d said Danielle Plecash, president of the Austin Saengerrunde Damenchor. \u201cWe purchased the property from Lemp (Brewing Company), who had purchased it from Scholz. \u2026 We really are proud of our German heritage, but also the role that we\u2019ve played in Austin history and the property that we have been trying to preserve and keep this part of what makes Austin, Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bret Britton, the organization\u2019s previous president, was introduced to Austoberfest in 2013 after seeing a listing in The Austin Chronicle and quickly became involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing I\u2019ve always appreciated about the Saengerrunde is that it\u2019s not about pretending that we\u2019re in Germany,\u201d Britton said. \u201cBecause we\u2019re not. We\u2019re in Texas. So what does it look like to celebrate German culture in Texas in a manner that is more consistent with the way people would have done it after moving here all those years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event will feature live performances from Texan and Austin-based bands like Two Tons of Steel, Sour Bridges and Off the Grid, as well as DJ Vegan Leather, featured in The Rolling Stone.<\/p>\n
The event\u2019s activities and members of the Saengerrunde encourage all students to join and celebrate. UT alumna Tela Mange said that before becoming involved with the Saengerrunde, she didn\u2019t speak any German.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that is a lot of fun about Austoberfest is that it takes beer and sausage and music, which are international,\u201d Mange said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to speak German to enjoy any of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inside Scholz Garten, the German word \u201cgem\u00fctlichkeit\u201d remains painted across the fence wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no straight English translation for the word from German, but it means fellowship and camaraderie,\u201d Plecash said. \u201cThat is something that I think the Austin Saengerrunde and Scholz do is try to inherently welcome people in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a rainy Austin City Limits weekend in sight, Austin Saengerrunde\u2019s Austoberfest provides an indoor alternative and safe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-455257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}