The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
City’s Oktoberfest hailed the biggest and best yet
Event at Slessor Gardens pulls in 2,500 people and raises £25,000 for good causes
Dundee’s biggest-ever Oktoberfest celebrations have been hailed a huge success.
The Rotary Club of Dundee event, held from Thursday to Saturday, raised around £25,000 for a range of good causes.
The three-day beer-fuelled festivities attracted more than 2,500 people, with a host of live bands on show, including chart-toppers The Magic Numbers.
It was the biggest and most ambitious Oktoberfest staged by the Rotary club since it launched what has become one of the major events in Dundee’s public entertainment calendar eight years ago.
The higher-than-anticipated attendances, however, reportedly led to long queues at the bar with organisers pledging to address the issue next year.
After seven years at Discovery Quay, the festival this year moved to the a site overlooking the city’s new V&A Museum of Design.
The 2018 event featured a programme of 22 local bands as well as The Magic Numbers, some of whose fans travelled from all over the UK for their heroes’ performance.
Robert Dunn, a past-president and chairman of the Oktoberfest committee, said: “We are delighted with the overall success of this year’s event.
“We were conscious that by staging the event at Slessor Gardens we were undertaking an even bigger commitment than ever before.
“We were also aware that we may experience some teething issues.
“Sales for Saturday particularly exceeded our expectations and this did create some challenges which will be addressed for the future.”
The Rotary club officials also praised the many volunteers who gave their time and energy to help make the festival such a triumph.
Rotary Club of Dundee president Gavin Strachan said: “The whole event was a great success in achieving its goal of raising precious funds for many charities in Dundee.”