52 Years On, Brisbane's Most Authentic Oktoberfest Is Still the Real Thing

Follow the sound of an accordion at Kangaroo Point this October and you'll find it: long tables filled with friends and strangers, steins raised shoulder-high, the smell of pork knuckle roasting in the kitchen, and a dance floor that rarely stays empty for long. For more than a century, the Brisbane German Club has been preserving and celebrating German culture in Queensland — and this year, its Oktoberfest turns 52, continuing one of Australia's longest-running and most authentic celebrations of Bavaria.

"You can recreate the look of Oktoberfest. You can't recreate 140 years of heritage," says Club Manager Trent Boyle. "Our Club has been celebrating German culture for more than a century, and for the past 52 years that has included Oktoberfest. It's never been about putting on a beer festival. It's about sharing a genuine cultural tradition with Brisbane."

Five weekends, one long tradition

This year's Oktoberfest runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday across five weekends in October: 2–4, 9–11, 16–18, 23–25, and a final weekend on 30–31. The opening Saturday brings the traditional tapping of the keg, marking the ceremonial start of the celebration — and that first weekend falls on the King's Birthday long weekend, with the Sunday landing on the public holiday eve.

Guests can expect traditional Bavarian entertainment, live music, stein-holding competitions, the return of Mr and Mrs Oktoberfest, and festival games, all built around long communal tables designed for shared meals and good company. Tickets start from $40, with a stein and the first fill included, and group bookings of six or more are available on Fridays and Sundays with a table and share plate included.

The beer, done properly

More than 40 imported German beers will pour across 24 dedicated taps this year, with additional seasonal and specialty beers available from the fridges. Rotating throughout the month will be beer from all six official Munich Oktoberfest breweries — Augustiner-Bräu, Hacker-Pschorr-Bräu, Staatliches Hofbräuhaus, Löwenbräu, Paulaner Brauerei and Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu — giving Brisbane drinkers the chance to try the same breweries that pour at Munich's own festival.

Joining them this year is Giesinger Bräu, Munich's newly recognised seventh brewery, now lobbying to become the first new brewery admitted to pour at Munich's actual Oktoberfest in more than a century.

Paulaner's seasonal Oktoberfestbier is normally released much closer to the festival itself, but the brewery has made an exception for the Club, releasing it early enough to complete the roughly 16,000-kilometre sea journey from Germany to Brisbane in time. "We probably spend almost as much time checking shipping trackers as we do polishing steins," Boyle says. "When these beers are travelling halfway around the world, you become surprisingly invested in their safe arrival."

More than a beer festival

The kitchen's famous one-kilogram pork knuckle returns this year alongside golden schnitzels, pretzels, sausages and traditional German desserts. A Schnucki Dirndl & Lederhosen pop-up market stall will also be on site, selling authentic Dirndls and Lederhosen imported from Germany — not costumes, but clothing designed to be worn to many Oktoberfests to come.

"People often think Oktoberfest is all about beer, but that's only part of the experience," Boyle says. "It's the live music, the dancing, the food, the games, the traditions and the sense of community that make it so special. The beer simply brings it all together."

Brisbane German Club's Oktoberfest 2026 runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 31 October at 416 Vulture Street, Kangaroo Point. Tickets from $40, with group bookings available Fridays and Sundays — details at oktoberfest.brisbanegermanclub.com.