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Mountain Home residents, it’s time to break out your favorite pair of lederhosen!
Rapp’s Barren Brewery’s ARktoberfest is returning to Mountain Home Saturday, Sept. 30 for the second year in a row. The festival will be held on the square downtown Mountain Home and will feature games and events for both adults and children.
Last year’s event saw over 400 residents attend the festival, raising over $13,000 for Backpack Food 4 Kids in Mountain Home. The raised money funded over one-third of the non-profit’s yearly expenses.
Rapp’s Barren has set a new attendance goal of 600 people for this year’s festival. A kid’s zone will be available for parents wishing to attend.
To purchase tickets for ARktoberfest, please click here.
“It is a family friendly event, even though it’s beer-centric,” said Rapp’s Barren co-owner Russell Tucker. “We’ll have a kid zone. We want families to feel like can come and that it’s a safe space for them and their kids.”
Last year’s ARktoberfest donation marks the single largest donation ever given to Backpack Food 4 Kids and accounted for roughly 20% of the organization’s annual budget.
Backpack Food 4 Kids is a program under the leadership of First United Methodist Church in Mountain Home and seeks to alleviate hunger and food insecurity for Mountain Home school children.
The program provides weekend meals to over 250 Mountain Home school children each week, as well as bags of food for children Wesley Kitchen and Kidspiration. Local volunteers pack and deliver food every week during the school year.
All proceeds raised during ARktoberfest will go towards feeding Mountain Home school children.
September’s festival
This year’s ARktoberfest will see some minor changes to the rules of its various games. In addition, some new faces will be joining this year’s festival, with new breweries from around the state and Missouri attending for the first time. A full list of attending breweries will be released closer to the day of the festival.
To start the festival, ARktoberfest will host Mountain Home’s first official Beer Mile run at 2:30 p.m. This run will feature a unique twist in which participants will chug a beer every quarter mile until they finish the race.
Throughout the festival, there will be several events for residents to participate in, including a barrel race, a sausage throwing competition and a pretzel eating competition. Some minor rule changes will be made to this year’s sausage throwing competition.
At 6 p.m. ARktoberfest’s Masskrugstemmen, or Stein Hoisting Championship will begin. Masskrugstemmen is a German tradition in which competitors face off against each other by seeing who can hold up a liter of beer the longest. Both the stein and the beer weigh around 5 pounds together.
The beer is to be held in one arm, right or left, in a stretched out position in front of the body. The arm must be parallel to the floor. The stein must be held by the handle loop. Contestants cannot wrap their hand through the handle.
During the competition, the contestants will face each other as they hold their beer filled steins. They cannot switch arms, nor can they use grip powders, tars, or braces for support. Contestants are out of the competition if they drop their steins. The winner will receive ultimate bragging rights.
Those who participate in the Masskrugstemmen will receive a commemorative stein, and a free beer.
While all ages are welcome to attend ARktoberfest, those wishing to drink must be over 21. Participants will have to show a valid ID at check in. Tickets for the event range from $40 to $60, with children 11 and under entering for free.
Ages 12 and up will receive a game wristband if parents make a small donation to Backpack Food 4 Kids. The wristband will allow them to have unlimited access to the Kids Zone and games.
VIP Beer Festival Wristbands will allow contestants to enter the festival one hour early. VIP holders will also be given a food voucher. The cost of a regular wristband is $40. The entry fee for the Masskrugstemmen is $20 per contestant.
A purchase of a wristband includes a commemorative taster cup, bottomless beer refills from all vendors, a pretzel necklace and unlimited game play.
The registration fee for the Beer Mile is $25. Contestants can also buy a Beer Mile t-shirt for $25.
