Search

Rock City Gardens Hosts Region’s Longest-Running Oktoberfest

The award-winning Rocktoberfest returns to Lookout Mountain Saturday, Oct. 1 through Sunday, Oct. 30 at Rock City Gardens! The 16th annual German-themed harvest festival offers delicious new German food and a variety of themed entertainment from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. 

Rock City celebrates the German heritage of its founder, Frieda Utermoehlen Carter, and offers live German tunes by Mark Merriman, Nashville-based polka band the Musik Meisters and Chattanooga’s premiere oompah band the Wurstbrats. Specialty German food is available at Café 7 (open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.), as well as themed food offerings throughout the park. Try beer-braised bratwursts with German potato salad and mustard, giant pretzels with beer cheese sauce, beer cheese soup bread bowls, Bavarian pork sandwiches with German-style kraut and a variety of Oktoberfest drinks. 

Watch Jerry the Mime entertain and get a caricature drawing by artist Dennis Hart. Pumpkin painting is also available as an add-on activity! Take a self-guided tour of the gardens during peak fall foliage, catch one of seven daily Birds of Prey shows featuring the amazing Rock City Raptors and be sure to visit the Fudge Kitchen for pumpkin spice treats! 

This event has been selected as a Top 20 Event for 2021 by Southeast Tourism Society! Visit www.seerockcity.com/rocktoberfest for the entertainment schedule and to make reservations. Online ticket purchases are recommended, as some time slots can sell out on beautiful fall weekends.   

From Left to Right: Cindy Pare, CHI Memorial Foundation; Doug Chapin, See Rock City Inc. president & CEO; Jennifer Fowler, Bailey’s mother and breast cancer survivor; Bailey Fowler, scholarship winner; Meagan Jolley, SRC senior manager of public relations & social media; Jamie Ann Rennick, SRC marketing director; Melissa Griggs, SRC director of attractions retail and & admissions

Rock City has an ongoing partnership with CHI Memorial Foundation honoring breast cancer awareness month during October. New pink “survivor” products are available for purchase, with a portion of proceeds benefitting the organization’s MaryEllen Locher scholarship program for students whose parents have been impacted by breast cancer. This year’s college scholarship recipient is Bailey Fowler, who has been awarded $1911. She is a 2022 Ridgeland High School graduate from Chickamauga and is now studying at the University of West Georgia. 

Rock City is one of the South’s most popular natural attractions. Known for its unique geological and botanical wonders, the enchanted 4,100-foot walking trail is a true marvel of nature featuring massive ancient rock formations, a cascading waterfall, Fairyland Caverns and Swing-A-Long Bridge that spans nearly 200 feet.

Other Topics

In a city brimming with entrepreneurial spirit, Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union’s (TVFCU) annual Idea Leap Grant program connects local business owners with funding to propel their businesses forward. This year, the competition reached new heights, recognizing outstanding businesses that…

In today’s challenging economy, more than one in three working households in Hamilton County struggle to make ends meet. More than 9,500 households with children are living in financial hardship. These families fall into the category known as ALICE: Asset-Limited,…

If you’d asked Ji Hoon Heo what he anticipated the next five years to look like when he launched his “Tesla Bros” Facebook group in January of 2019, he likely wouldn’t have shared visions of a nearly 30,000-subscriber YouTube fanbase,…

Modern Chattanooga has been formed by a series of What If questions.  What if we built an aquarium and renovated our forgotten riverfront?  What if we cleaned up our air and atmosphere, once considered among the dirtiest in the nation? …

This summer, you can buy a special seventh-inning snack – take me out to the ballgame – at any Chattanooga Lookouts home game.   "Curveball Crunchies," said Stacy Martin. "It's a play on 'buy me some peanuts and Crackerjacks'."  Martin created…

If you pay any attention to the business world, then you are probably at least vaguely familiar with Nvidia, a San Francisco Bay Area technology outfit that earlier this summer harnessed the wave of AI popularity to become the most…

Sign up for weekly updates.