Tomorrow night is gonna be a blast. 2004 will mark the fourth year in a row that I have attended Edmonton's Oktoberfest to Rocktoberfest function at the downtown Shaw Conference Centre. The past three years have been more fun than should be legally allowed.
There are several thousand people that descend upon the conference centre and pack the halls to consume a German repaste while being entertained by the sweet polka stylings of the Black Forest Band. Your entry ticket (reasonably priced at $24.50) will get you admission, a glow-in-the-dark keepsake plastic mug, your meal and that same mug filled once with beer. (Last year, as the lights were turned on at the end of the night, I threaded my belt through the handles of almost two dozen mugs left behind by 'Fest-goers and they now comprise the bulk of our cup cabinet.)
Once dinner is over, some large, sturdy, German fellow named George takes the stage and puts on a brief but very impressive drinking display. He can chug beer like nobody's business. What makes it doubly impressive is that he stands on his head, with his heels held by a cohort, grasps the glass pint with only his teeth and quaffs the beer in the space of two or three seconds. Before resuming his feet, he chases the beer with two shots of sambuca. The crowd then joins him in a raucous chorus of "Ziggy - zaggy, Ziggy - zaggy, hoi - hoi - hoi !!"
The Black Forest Band is replaced close to midnight with the headliners of the year. This is normally a has-been, washed-up '80s band that is still making the concert rounds in an attempt to relive their past glory. And for one night each year, in downtown Edmonton, they do. Previous performers have been Glass Tiger and Trooper. This year's band is April Wine.
Unfortunately, I was not able to convince my darling wife to join me at this year's festivities, given that we have an infant son and she is loathe to leave him in the hands of others until he's a wee bit older. I, on the other hand, apparently have no qualms in abandoning wife and son for a few hours away from domesticity. I have been left with the admonition that it is far better to come home drunk and on time as opposed to sober and late. I can live with that.
As has-beens go, April Wine are among the biggest. If offered a choice between tickets to see April Wine, or B.T.O., I'd have to flip a coin.
-Paul
Posted by: Paul | Friday, 29 October 2004 at 09:14 PM