It’ s a brisk, but sunny, Autumn day during the mid-1990’ s as a young boy makes his way past a row of second-hand merchants beneath white tents outside Sacred Heart Elementary School.“ The Chicken Dance” plays from some unseen loudspeaker as a new keg of root beer is tapped, but he remains focused on a singular goal.
With a freshly trimmed bowl cut and a $ 1 bill in his pocket, the boy makes his way to just outside the school’ s gymnasium. He pays his entrance fee and steps onto one of the many numbers drawn into a circle on the ground. Traditional German music starts to play as he and the other participants make their way around the circle, hoping to land on the chosen number when the music stops. The prize? One of dozens of homemade cakes displayed on a nearby table. The music pauses. He looks down at his feet. A number is called that matches the one he is standing on. He picks out his cake and goes to find his family, proudly carrying it like it was a gold medal.
I couldn’ t tell you now what specific number I landed on or what flavor cake I selected as my prize, but that memory from one of Cullman’ s early Oktoberfests has always stuck with me. It was a simpler time for the city’ s longest consecutively running annual festival. One before the smell of bratwurst and the sounds of polka music drew in tens of thousands of visitors from across the country. Daniel Wyatt, Cullman Parks, Recreation
and Sports Tourism’ s events coordinator, remembers those white tents and the annual German traditions that heralded the transition from Summer to Fall in Cullman County. The spectacle of today’ s festival may be a far cry from those of the past, but Wyatt said the spirit— one built on a foundation of community and celebration of the city’ s German heritage— remains the same.
“ I’ m so thankful that those people had the drive to keep these festivals alive. Being in events, I know how hard it is. For somebody to take that and keep that going year after year? My hat’ s off to them,” Wyatt said.“ For me [ the festivals ] is like having a child. You know, my kids are going to grow up, and it’ s my job to direct that growth so that they are decent human beings. That’ s the way I think a town should be, you should be able to grow it, but have the direction planned to keep what makes it great about the town and what’ s special and not have that flame burn out.”
Wyatt, a Cullman native, has worked in radio since 2002. He left Birmingham’ s 102.5“ The Bull” in 2002 for Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he worked at WUSY-FM US101, but maintained a deep connection to his hometown, even sharing weekly headlines from Cullman on-air. In July 2025, he moved back home to highlight and help grow what he loved most about Cullman and said he believes the city’ s growing festival schedule was the perfect way to do so.
“ I wanted to be back here at home, but I didn’ t want to come back and just get a job anywhere. I wanted to do something with the community in some way to express what Cullman meant to me,” Wyatt said.“ I wanted to come back in a way that I could show everybody else what Cullman meant.”
Oktoberfest is the festival Wyatt most remembers from his childhood and the one which he believes has set the standard for the trifecta of CPRST festivals which now include the Strawberry Festival and Cullman Christkindlmarkt.
Each fall since 1982 the city of Cullman has set aside an entire week for festivities including German dinners, wiener dog races, and of course, cake walks. But until 2011 the festival lacked one of, if not the most crucial components for any Oktoberfest celebration... beer. The festival even caught the eye of Comedy Central’ s The Daily Show, who sent correspondents to film a segment documenting one of the largest dry- Oktoberfests, including the tapping of the root beer keg. But it was after the first official beer keg was tapped that the festival began really growing in popularity and size.
Oktoberfest remains a weeklong celebration in Cullman. But, today’ s culmination has been expanded to a three day event that fills Depot Park and the nearby Warehouse District with merchants, food vendors, street performers and live music. The most recent festival welcomed nearly 75,000 guests to downtown Cullman.
Top left, Children take a spin on the ice skating rink during the Christkindlmarkt; center, children react competing in a pie eating contest during the Alabama Strawberry Festival; right, Pat Clemmons Oct. 8, 2001 with one of the Oktoberfest Hay People; and bottom left, opening ceremonies for the 2025 Oktoberfest celebration.
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