'Changes needed to be made' Bingemans president of break from K-W Oktoberfest

Mark Bingeman wants to be clear — Bingemans still supports Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest.

But change is needed, he added.

In March, in separate press releases, Bingemans and K-W Oktoberfest announced they were parting ways.

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"It just got to the point where it was, we felt it was getting very significant that changes needed to be made, and the Oktoberfest product tweaked and adjusted to meet the mainstream and the local demands," Bingeman said in an interview with CBC News Monday.

"There's no doubt that modernizing and evolving a 49-year-old festival is no easy feat," he said. "We just found, through our discussions, we didn't necessarily see it happening fast enough or to the point where it was going to be relevant to what people wanted."

Bingemans helped found festival

In March, the news broke that Bingemans — which was a founding member of the festival and has been part of the event for 48 years — would no longer be an official venue.

In a statement at the time, Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest president Margo Jones said the festival was "disappointed by the recent decision by the Bingeman family to leave the Oktoberfest Festhalle family, we thank them for being one of our founding members and visionaries back in 1969."

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As part of the break with K-W Oktoberfest, Bingemans will not be permitted to use the festival's official name in any branding or marketing. Bingemans also cannot use Onkel Hans or other trademarked elements of the official festival and won't be listed as an official venue.

Since then, Bingemans has announced it will continue with Kool Haus events and will offer German and craft beers, something that isn't permitted under the partnership K-W Oktoberfest has with Molson-Coors.

Bingemans partnered with Waterloo Brewing and they created the Festbier for this year's event, which will also be available at local LCBO stores. As well, Bingemans ran an online contest asking people to pick which craft beers they'll serve.

'It's emotional for some'

Reaction to the news initially was mixed, Bingeman said.

"When it first came out, there were some comments made in public that were certainly disheartening for us to see," he said.

"I'm sure it's emotional for some, but I've got to be honest, it's been overwhelmingly positive," he added.

Bingeman said the changes to the event had to happen because people were asking for it.

"Our goal is to be evolving all the time," he said.

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Those attending this year's events at Bingemans will see similar events to those held in the past, but with some changes. The marche-style Bavarian feast is back, Retroberfest, concerts and Kool Haus will all continue.

Bingemans also announced Sam Roberts Band will play on Oct. 11.

And there will be changes to the look of the venue — they will have to avoid anything branded as K-W Oktoberfest — and there will be a keg tapping every night involving people attending the event, not local officials or celebrities.

"We're bringing the keg tapping to the people," he said. "If you thought the party was great before, wait til we blow the doors off it this year."

Needs to stay dynamic

K-W Oktoberfest runs Oct. 6 to 14 and Bingeman said he wants to see it succeed. He also doesn't want to focus on any negativity surrounding the break from the festival.

"There's clearly a difference of opinion on which way to move forward and after three or four years of no movement forward, we just found ... if there's proven to be no movement, then we're going to have to move it on our own," he said.

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In the end, it's an event that brings tourists to the area and Bingeman said they support getting people into Waterloo region to discover what is here to see and do.

"At the end of the day, it's about providing products that people from GTA or other places are going to say, 'Hey listen, let's go down and do that,'" he said.

"If it doesn't stay dynamic, it's going to go by the wayside. It'll become a nice, little event for local people and that'll be it."