CINCINNATI — There’s no shortage of major events in Cincinnati: baseball parades, huge conventions, food festivals, even a larger-than-life art and light show.

BLINK attracted 2.1 million people to downtown Cincinnati over four days in October.

But while other events, such as Oktoberfest Zinzinnati or Taste of Cincinnati, may attract larger audiences, few have the localized charm or lasting community appeal as Bockfest.

For more than three decades, the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood has hosted the festival in early March to mark the arrival of spring. The three-day event also celebrates the city’s German heritage and highlights Cincinnati’s rich brewing heritage, particularly bock beer.

Droves of people line Main Street every year for the Bockfest parade. (Photo courtesy of Jack Holland)

The 31st rendition of Bockfest begins Friday at 6 p.m. with the annual parade, which starts outside Arnold’s Bar and Grill, then makes its way up Main Street. It culminates at Bockfest Hall on Vine Street in OTR.

Steve Hampton, one of the event organizers, didn’t have an estimate of how many people to expect at the parade. But he predicts about 30,000 people to take part in Bockfest over the course of the weekend.

Events range from beer tastings and historic brewery tours to goat yoga and a 5K run.

“Even after all these years, this really remains a community event at its heart,” said Hampton, who’s been associated with Bockfest for the last 17 years. 

“It’s really a festival of and by the neighborhood and the community, and that’s what makes it really unique,” he added. “Bockfest has a few favorites that return year after year, but each one is always a little different and I think that’s a big reason people keep coming back.”

A celebration of bock beer and OTR

Bock-style beers are historically brewed for special occasions, often religious festivals — Christmas and Easter, for example. Bavarian Christian monks first brewed these beers in the 1400s in the city of Einbeck as a source of nutrition during times of fasting, such as Lent.

“Einbeck” was often mispronounced as “Einbock,” which means “billy goat,” Hampton said. 

The goat has become a symbol of bock beers. At Bockfest, a 12-foot “Trojan goat” with a beer keg for a body gets pushed by a group dressed as monks, Hampton said. A number of regular-sized, real goats will march along the one-mile parade route as well. 

Parade floats feature themes or costumes based on puns related to monks, goats or a variety of other pop-culture items, such as the Ghostbusters.

“I’m one of the organizers, and even I don’t know what to expect,” Hampton said.

Bock beers became popular in pre-Prohibition Cincinnati and other cities with German-Catholic heritage. But by the early ‘90s, the style had fallen out of favor, said Hampton, who works as a sort of beer historian for the Brewing Heritage Trail in OTR.

There are more than 24 different types of bock-style beer in the drink lineup for this year's Bockfest. (Photo courtesy of Bockfest)

One brewer that was still making it was Cincinnati-based Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company. Its leadership team initially created Bockfest as a marketing gimmick to promote their new Christian Moerlein bock beer, said Chris Breeden, the owner of Arnold’s.

Arnold’s — the oldest continuously operated bar in Cincinnati — has served as the starting point for every Bockfest parade since the first one in 1992.

The Bockfest fun actually starts at the Eighth Street tavern the day before the parade with the “Tapping of the Bocks.” Arnold’s has 18 bocks on tap this weekend, including three exclusive releases.

There are 24 total bock beers available this year. Styles include Dunkel bock, Maibock (or Helles bock), Doppelbock and Weizenbock.

This is the only time of year Arnold’s serves bock beers. It’s also the historic saloon’s busiest weekend of the year, said Breeden, who worked there for more than 22 years before buying it three years ago.

Arnold’s opens at 2 p.m. Friday. Breeden expects parade-goers to pack the house by 3 p.m. Trying to find a seat will be nearly impossible by 5 p.m. when the parade lines up, he added.

“Bockfest is really a chance for Cincinnati to showcase how weird it can be,” Breeden said with a laugh.

“It’s always a good time largely because of the personalities,” he added. “All the costumes and unique events make it truly one-of-kind. There’s nowhere else in the world that has Bockfest or a festival like this.”

Beyond Arnold’s, several bars and restaurants along Main Street and other parts of downtown Cincinnati are planning to serve at least a keg or two of bock beer throughout the weekend.

This year’s title sponsor is Sonder Brewing, which is pouring five beers this weekend, including a traditional bock called “William Goat.” The name is a tongue-in-cheek play on the term “billy goat.”

The Mason, Ohio-based brewery has been a lower-level sponsor since its inception in 2018. Even though they don’t have formal roots in OTR, it’s a great opportunity to extend business relationships in the neighborhood and connect with beer fans from near and far, per Sonder’s Jessica Green.

“The history of this event is really a testament to how important it is to Over-the-Rhine,” she said. “At a time when the neighborhood wasn’t booming with businesses and other things like it is currently, Bockfest gave people a reason to come to OTR and get excited about its history and its brewing history.”

Much more than beer to Bockfest faithful

Bockfest Hall serves as the epicenter of the festival. For the second year in a row, it’s taking place in a large tented area at Findlay Playground in the city’s Brewing District.

The goal for this year is to “settle into the space,” Hampton said. He noted they made some tweaks, including the food menu and music lineup, but they’re also bringing back several popular family-friendly attractions. Those include a petting zoo and games for kids and adults alike. 

On Sunday, more than a dozen breweries are taking part in the so-called “Beer Games” competition, Hampton said.

A panel of experts is hosting conversations on Cincinnati and brewing history. And the Brewing Heritage Trail team is taking guests off-site for one of the last tours of the Sohn-Clyffside Brewery site on West McMicken Avenue. The Cincinnati Beverage Company is converting the space into its future headquarters.

The Sausage Queen competition is one of the most beloved aspects of Bockfest. Here, one of the past winners poses outside Arnold's Bar and Grill before a parade. (Photo courtesy of Arnold's Bar and Grill)

Brad Leeds has attended the Bockfest each of the past nine years while living in OTR. This will be a first for him since moving to a suburb east of Cincinnati last year to start a family.

Leeds looks forward to the activities inside the festival tent and, of course, the beer. But he’s most excited about introducing his 2-month-old son to Bockfest.

“While he won’t understand what’s going on, I’m sure he’ll enjoy looking at the decorations and the fun outfits people are wearing,” he said. 

Leeds and his girlfriend hope to keep bringing him back year after year.

“Hopefully one day we can enjoy a nice bock beer as a family,” he added.

One major change this year involved the popular Sausage Queen pageant — a typically multi-site, gender-neutral talent competition who’s a star of the weekend.

For a time, it didn’t look like there’d be a contest because of issues with sponsor changes, timing and a lack of volunteers, Hampton said. 

He credited a group of passionate Bockfest fans who love the annual tradition with stepping up to host their own version of the competition at Mecklenburg Gardens.

This year’s one-day competition featured song parodies performed with sausage-themed lyrics, stand-up comedy routines, and one princess even brought a giant sausage-making prop that shot out nearly 20 feet of fake sausage stuffing into the unsuspecting audience.

After a “fierce” competition, Angel Wuellner earned the title of Bockfest Sausage Queen by “making it rain sausages on the crowd,” according to Marie Lane, a pageant organizer.

Lane, a former Sausage Queen competitor, first attended Bockfest in 2015. She cited the hilarity of the competition as the main reason she fell in love with it, but it’s the quirkiness of the revelers taking part that keeps drawing her back each March.

“I thought, ‘now those are my people,’” added Lane, whose commitment to Bockfest includes a tattoo — a goat in a monk’s robe drinking a bock beer — on her shoulder.

Events like Oktoberfest or Taste of Cincinnati are great in their own right, Hampton said. But despite some superficial similarities, they’re different from Bockfest, and he thinks the people are a major reason.

“You just have to experience for yourself, and then you’ll understand why,” he said.