The show offers a quaint shopping experience featuring handmade and one-of-a-kind items and a variety of collectible and unique gifts. Sixty crafters and artists from throughout the Western United States converge in Big Bear Lake for the holiday weekend. From wire-wrap gem jewelry, to handmade hats and scarves, to homemade jams and oils, to personalized ornaments, to vintage clothing, there are gifts available for every taste and every budget. Holiday items include Christmas wreaths, handmade Santas, and holidays treats.

Doors open at 10:00 a.m. daily with the shopping continuing through 5:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 3:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Admission is $3.00 for adults with children 12 and under free. Sunday is Local’s Day with FREE admission for all Bear Valley residents (I.D. required). Visit www.bigbearevents.com for coupons.

Doors open at 10:30 a.m. and Santa arrives at 11:00 a.m. The fun continues through 1:00 p.m. Each child will receive a free gift from Santa, a Christmas stocking and be entered into a raffle to win a variety of prizes. No one walks away empty handed!!! Free hot dogs will also be served. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For all the details, call the American Legion at 866-4845

Bring the family, as this is the only New Year’s Eve party that features a bounce house and free children activities.

Wyatt’s will be serving up a full menu of ranchstyle grub. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. and continues through mid night with a complimentary Champagne Toast at the strike of midnight. Stay tuned here for more details to follow.

What a year we’ve had! It has been a fun six weeks. Check out this year’s photo gallery to get a brief ‘snapshot’ of the this year’s good times. More photos will be posted after this weekend.

Finals of the Log Sawing, Stein-Holding and Safe Slam Beer Drinking Contests all take place this weekend between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. We also celebrate our German Spooktacular with both adult and children’s costume contests. Children’s contest takes place at 3:00 p.m. and all children in costume get FREE admission. The adult costume contest takes place at 9:00 p.m. Prizes are awarded in both contests with the grand prize for the adult contest a full Oktoberfest weekend in 2012!

So join us as we have one last day of prosits and brats. Get here early, as we expect it to be another big weekend!

Weather looks great for the weekend ahead and Hwy. 38 is now OPEN! Check-out the photo gallery for new pictures of this year’s event.

Our new FAST PASS rolls out this weekend. Avoid the hassles of any lines. The FAST PASS is $75 per person and includes admission, a Jager T-shirt, your first beer ticket and six passes to get to the front of the beer line!! FAST PASSES can only be purchased on site and there is a limited amount available. Simply come to the Will Call entrance and ask for a FAST PASS. FAST PASSES go on sale at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The 2011 Oktoberfest Queen contest officially begins Saturday, Oct. 1 at 6:00 p.m. Our queen is chosen by how many 1 liter beer steins she can carry. Some of our former queens have actually carried more weight in beer steins than their own body weight. Each stein weighs five pounds. The contest runs every Saturday evening through Oct. 15th when the winner is crowned.

We are celebrating American Heroes this weekend, as well as opening of the 2011 season. All military, police, and fire personal, both past and present, get in for FREE. This also includes their immediate families. Join us as we say “Thanks” for a job well done.

The two new bier gardens are set up and looking great providing 3,100 sq. ft. of expanded seating and a new atmosphere in the Sports Garden. Catch college games and baseball on Saturdays and the best of the NFL games on Sunday. The Warsteiner Bier Garden has also been expanded, with 200 sq ft. of additional seating.

This is definitely the year of the Chicken! We have a new chicken mascot, who has been on the road all summer making appearances at several minor league baseball games throughout the Inland Empire. But, not only do we have a new chicken, we also welcome the return of the infamous chicken hat, which is now exclusive to the Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest! So come on out and see the chicken, drink a beer, eat a brats, and dance a polka.

This is definitely the year of the Chicken! We have a new chicken mascot, who has been on the road all summer making appearances at several minor league baseball games throughout the Inland Empire. But, not only do we have a new chicken, we also welcome the return of the infamous chicken hat, which is now exclusive to the Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest!

Check us out on Facebook. Lots of great photos – www.facebook.com/bigbearoktoberfest.

If you haven’t pre-purchased your tickets, we have a couple of new options available. Now you can pre-purchase Burgermeister Bucks and Beer Booklets. Walk in, grab a seat and enjoy your day without having to get to one of our ticket booths. However, if you do need to get to a ticket booth to restock, please note that all four of the ticket booths this year will accept credit cards!

Stay tuned here for all the details and news on Oktoberfest. We’ll be updating every few days.

Prosit!