David Anderson pitched the idea one person at a time. He started with a few close friends, then went to the bar and restaurant owners around Crosslake. He got the same answer at almost every stop. "Each one goes, 'Well, that's great, but who's going to do it?'" Anderson told the Pine and Lakes Echo Journal. "So I guess I will."

That's how the first Crosslake Oktoberfest came together. It runs Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16–17, 2026, with a Main Tent on the old Exchange lot at 36095 County Road 66. The way it started matters for how it works. Anderson recruited the owners first, so the festival was designed from the beginning to send people out of the tent and into their dining rooms. The tent on County Road 66 is where the weekend starts. The festival runs across 17 local stops around town.

The weekend between Crosslake Days and the holidays

Anderson picked the date on purpose. He told the Echo Journal that Crosslake's fall calendar goes quiet between Crosslake Days and the holiday season. He chose MEA weekend because families are already gathering then, so it seemed like the natural weekend to fill. The festival lines up with the break, when many families are off school and up north.

"I just really felt the community needed one more event," he said. He drew on years of hosting large gatherings and tents near the Twin Cities. His son and daughter designed the event's branding and artwork.

Because the owners signed on before anything else was in place, the restaurants that keep Crosslake busy in summer now have a shared reason to fill up on a Friday and Saturday in October.

A familiar corner of County Road 66 gets a new use

If you've driven through town in the last 18 years, you know the lot. It was the site of the Exchange Bar and Grill, which burned in 2008. In 2013, the Echo Journal reported that the City Council had asked the planning and zoning commission to look into vehicles and other items parked there for sale. Its July 2008 fire was one entry in the Brainerd Dispatch roundup of that year's lakes-area fires.

For two days, the corner where a bar and grill once stood becomes the festival grounds. The official festival site describes the Main Tent as sitting right along County Road 66 in the heart of Crosslake, easy to reach from anywhere in the Lakes Area. A rendering of the planned decorations ran with both of the Echo Journal's festival stories.

The tent sends you back out into town

The tent has the music, the contests and the keg tapping. The Passport Tour and SausageFest take place at local businesses around town.

The Passport Tour asks you to pick up a free card and collect punches at four local businesses on Friday or Saturday. Bring a completed card back to the Main Tent and guests 21 and older get a free Leinenkugel's. Anyone 18 and older is entered in a drawing for a custom cornhole board set.

SausageFest runs Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon, with Bavarian sausages served at participating local businesses instead of the tent.

The festival's businesses page promotes 17 participants and names 15 of them:

• 14 Lakes Pub and Brewery
• Squirrelly Mama
• Manhattan's
• Moonlite Bay
• Pine Peaks Restaurant
• The Wharf
• Andy's Bar & Grill
• Dark Horse Brew
• Mad Rabbits Feast Kitchen
• Ox Lake Tavern
• Riverside Tavern
• Up North Social
• Maucieri's Italian Bistro
• Fifty Lakes Bar & Bottle Shop
• ZORBAZ on Crozzlake

The list covers more than downtown Crosslake. Fifty Lakes Bar & Bottle Shop puts a stop up the road in Fifty Lakes. The Wharf and Pine Peaks both describe themselves as being on the Whitefish Chain. To finish a passport card, you'll need to pick four. The site doesn't say which of the stops issue or punch passport cards. If you're planning a route, ask at the first stop you visit.

What happens at the Main Tent, hour by hour

The full schedule, as published by the Pine and Lakes Echo Journal on Oct. 9:

The prize money stands out for a first-year festival. The TrachtFest costume contest has a $2,000 purse, and the yodeling contest pays a $100 grand prize. The Family Fun Zone in The Village has Hammerschlagen, kid-friendly axe throwing, cornhole and a pretzel toss. That makes Saturday an easy day out if you have kids or grandkids up for the break.

Saturday is the bigger day. The tent opens two hours earlier, SausageFest and the dachshund races both happen before 1 p.m., and the yodeling contest closes things out at 5 p.m. If you can only go one day and want the full program, go Saturday. Friday's headline moments are the 1 p.m. keg tapping and The Dweebs Family Band from 5 to 8 p.m.

Parking at The Log Church and other practical details

Entry to the Main Tent and the Village grounds is free, according to the festival's schedule page. Parking is at The Log Church lot, 37218 County Road 66, with a shuttle to and from the festival grounds on the Exchange lot.

The organizers' own tips are simple: wear comfortable shoes, bring layers because evening temperatures drop, carry ID for adult beverages, and arrive early. Organizers haven't published a rain plan or any road-closure notices. Check the festival site before you head out Friday.

If family or friends are coming up for the break and you don't have room at the lake, the festival site recommends Whitefish Lodge & Suites, Pine Peaks Lodge & Suites and Manhattan Beach Lodge. Since the festival lands on MEA weekend, book soon if you haven't.

Northland Sotheby's International Realty is based in Crosslake, and we're glad to see a new tradition take root in our hometown. If friends visiting for Oktoberfest start asking what it would take to have their own place on the Whitefish Chain, we'd be glad to show them around the lakes once the festival wraps up Saturday night.