The Tinley Park Oktoberfest is canceled this year due to rising costs, according to Jame Holt, president of the Tinley Park Chamber of Commerce, the event’s organizer.
The Chamber said the cancellation was a difficult decision but ultimately the best course of action.
The September celebration has featured authentic beer, brats, music, German dancing and carnival rides, turning the parking lot along 80th Avenue and the Metra Train into a resemblance of Munich, Germany for three days.
Holt said costs to run and properly secure the event this year became unsustainable for the Chamber’s volunteer organization, despite the event’s popularity.
When relaunching the event in 2017, Oktoberfest organizers predicted they would be able to handle continuing the event, even as it was expected to grow. The event had about a 20-year hiatus, they said, after becoming too large.
But the Chamber faced multiple deficits in its total income in the past few years, starting in 2020 with a deficit of more than $51,000. The Chamber regained an income surplus in 2021 and 2022, but hit another deficit of more than $97,000 in 2023, which was reduced to $26,327 last year, according to its tax filings.
Holt said he still expects the event to return in 2026, according to an emailed statement.
“We remain committed to our business community and will offer new and exciting opportunities to promote our business members,” said Holt in the email.
Shannon Corcoran, a manager at Durbins in downtown Tinley Park, worked the event last year serving pizza and beer, but said it rained every day, and fewer people attended, which brings some uncertainty.
“It’s a shame,” Corcoran said. “It’s a nice event and wonderful for the community, but it’s an iffy season and is it worth it if it rained every day this time last year?”
Corcoran said there’s a lot of amazing opportunities going on in the community and said the dozens of events at Harmony Square this year might be able to makeup for missing Oktoberfest.
Last year’s Oktoberfest featured live performances from eight bands, including the Tinley Park High School jazz band, along with dozens of food, craft and business vendors. The event was also sponsored by more than two dozen local and corporate businesses.
Tinley residents, along with crowds from across the south suburban area, typically spent the weekend wearing lederhosen, taking in traditional German fare, seasonal brews and carnival rides Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Like the Munich fest, Tinley Park’s also began each day with the ceremonial tapping of the keg at the Hacker-Pschorr tent, the popular German brew.
Years ago, a smaller, similar celebration was held at The Oak Park Avenue station and eventually moved to the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, but ended there when it became too large. The event wasn’t relaunched until 20 years later, when the Tinley Park Chamber of Commerce brought it to the 80th Avenue Metra Station in 2017.
