Oktober ties

The songs of Germany are made of marching snare drums, waddling thumps of tuba and accordion flourishes. Its dances feature bobbing feathered caps with hearty laughs and shoe-slapping quicksteps.

And when played and danced as they were during Oktoberfest at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton on Saturday, such shows of celebration can even get authentic Germans up and dancing.

Like Lucia Engel, 25, of Heidelburg, Germany, who was recently engaged to Mike Meketen, 39, a student at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center in Charlottesville.

“The music is very authentic,” said Engel, one of few spectators to wear traditional clothing.

She said many people noticed her white and sky blue dress for its traditional Bavarian colors.

Her two blond braids too.

“It’s cool and it’s traditional,” she said of the dress, with its flower stitches at the hem and a bunched torso.

Engel and Meketen have seen Oktoberfest together in Munich, Germany, where they met and where they’ll return after he graduates, but Saturday’s festival marked their first in Virginia. It didn’t disappoint.

“This is awesome,” Meketen said, rolling his beer mug, from Munich, onto the back of his hand.

While a secret family bratwurst recipe sizzled on Joe Pehan’s grill, and beer steins filled and emptied, musicians and dancers from Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., entertained in traditional garb.

“We’re bringing Bavaria to you,” said Betty Haymen of the Alt Washingtonia dance club.

After a “miner’s dance,” in which boys as young as age 3 danced and knocked together hammers and stakes, Haymen showed off in a musical duet, with a table full of cowbells.

Members of the Shippensburg Blaskapelle, of Pennsylvania, implored spectators to dance to their waltzes and polkas.

“If you are going to be dancing up here, remember there are EMT’s on call,” joked band leader and tenor horn player Kurt Richter.

Even those not of German descent, such as Fay and Dave Davis, of Churchville, sang and clapped along.

“The music is strictly oom pah pah,” said Dave Davis, before conducting with his hands. “I love it.”