Ruidoso Oktoberfest at the Convention Center

The festival was dedicated to the fall harvest and to the Region's most famous product, beer. Tradesman and merchants came throughout Germany to join in the merry-making. They examined the crops, sang songs, danced and sampled the first beer of the season.

This year, visitors to the German Oktoberfest will consume 5 million liters of beer, 700,000 chickens, and 400,000 sausages.  They will celebrate their 202nd birthday and it is considered the largest festival in the world drawing  over 7 million of visitors annually.

In contrast here in Ruidoso, we are only celebrating our 31st annual Oktoberfest.  We don't consume near that amount of chickens, sausages, or beer, but we make a good attempt at it, and we have a lot of fun doing it.

The Ruidoso Oktoberfest is produced by Special Events Resource Group (SERG). SERG is a non-profit 501c3 New Mexico Corporation formed with the purpose of providing funds to benefit legitimate and recognized Charities and fund Education Scholarships for the youth of Lincoln County, NM. Since its inception in 1999, SERG has contributed over $165,000 to Lincoln County charities including over $70,000 in scholarships.