Posted on Oct 07, 2009 - 10:40 AM

Revelry Reigns at Market Common Octoberfest

By Lenore McKenzie-Morris

You can find a lot of Jimmy Buffet music performed at festivals in Myrtle Beach, but most of it is not played by men in black leather lederhosen with traditional embroidery on the shorts.

The Rheingold Band had traveled from Louisville to perform at the Octoberfest event at The Market Common in Myrtle Beach this past weekend. In between sets of traditional German music, the band adopted various music styles and kept the pace light and festive.

Jimmy Buffet was only the beginning.

"We just wanted to see if they liked it," said Dieter Geckler, a band member who was busy drinking a beer while taking a break and eyeing a nearby Elvis impersonator in the crowd. "Next we're going to try him out to see if he can fit in."

The crowd didn't seem to mind the musical selections, and the patio in front of the stage filled from time to time with patrons attempting everything from German folk dance to the more locally preferred shag.

Within an hour of opening up the beer tent, organizers were running out of cups and keg beer. The situation was quickly resolved with bottled beer from the adjacent bars.

Geckler, who said his band performed at the inaugural event last year, noted that the event was even bigger this year.

"It has grown four fold since last year," he said.

While the drinking-aged crowd hovered near the beer tent and the parents and kids roved about between face painting booths and the living scarecrow, a serious group of Octoberfest fans parked themselves at the edge of the patio in the shade of Valor Park's young trees.

"I just got back from Munchen," said Barbara Wren, a Myrtle Beach-area resident, who noted that this Octoberfest was fairly small compared to the one she'd just attended in Germany.

"This has a milder atmosphere," Wren said with a wicked grin on her face. "But I'm having a wonderful time."

On the other side of Valor Park, the 500 pumpkins provided by Market Common were going fast at the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art MuseumTent.

Braelyn Lacerda had bright pink, blue and purple fingertips, but for a 2-year-old she was very clean. While others sported paint on many body parts, Braelyn stayed dainty throughout the process of decorating her miniature pumpkin.

The Myrtle Beach toddler then handed the wet, painted pumpkin to her mom to carry throughout Valor Park.

"I knew that was probably coming," said her mom, Shannon Rocha, who was among dozens of mothers carrying decorated pumpkins on the way to the air-filled bouncy rides and the face-painting booths.

Lori Seckinger, education coordinator for the art museum, said the pumpkin-painting booth was attracting more than just children.

"We've had all ages," she said. "We have grandmas who start to help the children and then think, 'OK, this is kind of fun, I want to do this.'

"It's all in the spirit of things."

The Market Common will continue celebrating fall with an Oktoberfest Concert Series. Sponsored by the Gordon Biersch Brewery and Surge, every Friday brings another chance to drink beer in a public park while listening to music.

The concerts are free. Beer and food will be sold for $1 to $5. Coolers are prohibited.