FILO Produces 3rd Annual GermanFest MN

This was the 3rd Annual GermanFest Heritage Festival that was produced by FILO, in partnership with West End Festivals and the Fort Road Federation. After a hugely successful 2015, much of the same structure was used for this years’ event. It took place over three days, June 17th – 19th at the Schmidts’ Artist’s Lofts site (formerly Schmidts Brewery).

Many of the same vendors were back again, both for selling their crafts and for creating delicious foods that people have come to expect. The Strongmen competition returned for the third year on Saturday, as well as the return of the Dachshund races as a feature event on Sunday. As always, one of the most popular attractions was the local tour(s) put on by historian, Dave Bredemus. This year the tour(s) included areas on the brewery site that have not been opened to the public in many years, and showed the Rathskeller before renovations take place on the infamous, old building.

Of course, in order to keep the event new and exciting, new components were added to 2016. The most noticeable was the focus on art, which is especially important to GermanFest since the old Schmidt Brewery has been turned into Artist Lofts.

The tenants were able to walk outside their doors and have a festival to attend without even leaving the property.

The theme for 2016 was “Modern Art with German Heart” and helped to display many connections to bring artists into the fold. Local artist Richard Hubal created a mural titled “A German Breath Over St. Paul MN” which featured many of the most famous churches all over Germany and St. Paul, and also had attendees create leaves to put on the frame. There was also a tent for the local artists to set up a table to display and sell their pieces and to engage in the community.

Another new participant this year, Hot Air Affair, helped with the “art in the sky” theme and brought in their hot air balloon baskets to help promote their own event. The Hot Air Affair is a great tie to Ferdinand Von Zeppelin's first hot air balloon ride that was piloted by John Steiner out of St. Paul, MN in 1863. Based from these flights, Von Zeppelin designed his first cigar shaped balloon called the "Zeppelin."

As a new addition to the calendar, FILO partnered with the Germanic-American Institute to put on Deutsche Days, which was a week-long program with activities each day to help bridge the gap between the GAI’s feature event, Deutsche Tage, and GermanFest. This helped to bring the two events closer by engaging the German community throughout the week, with new events that could not otherwise find a home. One of the highlights for Deutsche Days was a bus tour hosted by Dave Bredemus. Each year, GAI has become an even bigger supporter of GermanFest MN and we look forward to growing our partnership in the upcoming years.