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Prost! to the Dallas restaurants and bars celebrating Oktoberfest 2021

It may say "Oktoberfest" but the festivities begin in mid-September.

Photo courtesy of Trinity Vision Authority

People who've been to Munich know first-hand that the name Oktoberfest is misleading: This annual beer celebration begins in late September. (Although in 2021, there will be no Oktoberfest in Munich at all, because of the pandemic. They have more common sense than we do in Texas.)

We may not have the German smarts but Dallas is rich with German heritage, and that makes it our duty to go all in on Oktoberfest, to raise a glass and do the event proud. Besides, all Oktoberfest events in DFW are outdoors. Take that, Deutschland.

The majority of Oktoberfest events in DFW begin in mid-September, but a few early birds are beginning celebrating this week.

Here's a list of all the Oktoberfest events being held in DFW, from bar celebrations to city events, in chronological order:

September 10

Oktoberfest celebration at Watters Creek. Presented by The Lion & Crown Pub, this is the fourth annual occurrence of this craft beer festival, and they're getting an early jump. The event features live music, traditional German dancing, stein hoisting, and an artisan market, all part of the excitement. There are stein hoistings, an introductory keg tapping, and a craft area for kids. Where: Village Green. When: Friday September 10 from 5-11 pm, Saturday September 11 from 11 am-11 pm, Sunday September 12 from 12-5 pm. on Sunday, September 12. Admission: Free.

September 16-19

Addison Oktoberfest. The town of Addison's annual Oktoberfest celebration has been named one of the country's most authentic Oktoberfest celebrations by Forbes and USA Today. Four days of family-oriented entertainment draw more than 50,000 fans, with German food and the same Paulaner Bier served in Bavaria. Dozens of polka bands and other traditional entertainers from around the country perform on multiple stages, including one at the Partyhalle, a 30,000-square-foot open-air tent with seating for 1,500. Contests include bier barrel rolling, a German Idol yodeling contest, activities for kids, unique shopping, and an opportunity to wear your dirndl and lederhosen. Where: Addison Circle Park, 4970 Addison Cir. When: Thursday September 16, 6-11pm, Friday September 17 6 pm–midnight, Saturday September 18 12 pm–midnight, Sunday September 19 12-5 pm. Admission: $10 for single-day on Friday and Saturday; Thursday and Sunday are free. Tickets are online.

September 18-19

Trucktoberfest. Truck Yard Dallas and Truck Yard The Colony, known for their offbeat programming, will host their inaugural Trucktoberfest, featuring a lively lineup of adult, kid, and dog-friendly activities such as a Stein Holding Contest, Wiener Dog Race, Yodeling Competition, and Pretzel-Eating Contest. Revelers are encouraged to don the traditional Lederhosen and Dirndl. Brew Boss Dennis Wehrmann will tap his great grandfather's 200-year-old keg of Truck Yard's Trucktoberfest brew. Where: Truck Yard Dallas, 5624 Sears St. and Truck Yard The Colony. When: September 18-19 11 am-11:45 pm. Admission: Free.

September 18

Oktoberfest at Manhattan Project Beer Co. Dallas Farmers Market brewpub will serve its own brewed Oktoberfest beer plus Doppelbock, Altbier, Fallout, and Helles. Chef T. Ball will do a pig roast, pork sausage, and sides. Alex Lambert from American Idol will play the beer garden at 4 pm. Lucas Kelm will perform at 7 pm. They open at 10 am, the party kicks off at 3 pm, and the pig will be ready at 5 pm. Where: Dallas Farmers Market. When September 18. Admission: Free.

September 18-October 3

Oktoberfest at Meddlesome Moth. Design District pub celebrates Oktoberfest for two weeks, beginning September 18, with special Oktoberfest tappings by beer director Matt Quenette. Dozens of Oktoberfest beers make appearances for the annual celebration including offerings from Real Ale, Saint Arnold, Firestone Walker, Great Raft, and Ayinger. Chef Joshua Boneé complements the beer experience with Beef Bangers and Mash, smoked onion jus, potato aligot, and caramelized cipollini onions as well as a Cacio de Pepe Spaetzle with house guanciale, pink peppercorn, and parmesan. Where: Meddlesome Moth. When: September 18-October 3.

September 23-25

Oktoberfest Fort Worth. The city's event is a family-friendly affair featuring authentic German food, music, dancing, games, shopping, and biergartens. Have fun watching the fur fly at the Dachshund Dash; shop for clothing, treats, and souvenirs in the marktsraße; or catch a thrill ride in the midway. Bier lovers can look forward to Spaten and other delicious fall and Oktoberfest biers from all around the country. If you buy your ticket online by September 22 at 11:59 pm, you get a free 2021 stein; a limited number of free steins will be available to those who buy tickets at the gate. Where: Panther Island Pavilion. When: Thursday September 23 and Friday September 24 from 5-11 pm, Saturday September 25 from 11 am-midnight. Admission: $5 for Thursday, $10 for Friday, and $10 for Saturday, or get a 3-day pass for $15. 12 and under is free.

September 24-26

Oktoberfest Downtown McKinney. The German is strong in McKinney, which has been hosting an Oktoberfest event since 2008. Three-day weekend of German-themed fun includes authentic German food, domestic and imported beer, live music, and games. The full schedule is online. Where: 200 W. Virginia St. When: Friday September 24 from 4 pm-midnight, Saturday September 25 from 10 am-midnight, Sunday September 26 from 12-5 pm. Admission: Free.

September 26

"Lake-toberfest" at Flying Saucer Draught Emporium. The Saucer celebrates Oktoberfest with its annual Lake-toberfest celebration, featuring tastings from a bevy of traditional, local, and national Oktoberfest brews. Tasting cards can be purchased at the restaurant on Sunday for $25 and include 12 four-ounce pours. The annual stein hoisting competition begins at 2 pm. Lederhosen and dirndls are encouraged for a costume contest at 3 pm. German fare specials and commemorative Oktoberfest glassware is available for purchase. Where: 4821 Bass Pro Dr. on Lake Ray Hubbard. When: September 26 at 11 am.

October 2

10th Annual Oktoberfest Dallas. Profits from this popular annual charitable event go to the Exchange Club of Lake Highlands which returns the proceeds to the community in a variety of ways. They canceled 2020 but now it's back with all day entertainment for the entire family including outdoor fun for the kids, local food, ice cream, beverages, and an amazing lineup of live music including Americana band Son Volt, as well as Taylor Dunn, Vandoliers, the Lake Highlands School of Music, and DeeJay CeePee/Christopher Todd Penn. Where: Flag Pole Hill at White Rock Lake. When: October 2 from 10 am-10 pm. Admission: $15 per wristband, purchase tickets online.

October 2-3

Frisco Oktoberfest. The city of Frisco joins the Oktoberfest fun with a weekend event at Frisco Square with fun and festivities, delicious Bier, German cuisine, and two stages with live entertainment. The festivities kick off with the opening ceremony at 11am on Saturday with a traditional keg tapping. The first attendees to arrive will receive a free beer until the keg is tapped out. Where: Frisco Square. When: October 2 from 11 am-10 pm, October 3 from 12-5 pm. Admission: $20 per sheet of 20 tickets; all food and beverage at the festival requires tickets. $100 for VIP Biergarten includes access to VIP tent and exclusive food and beverages. Purchase tickets online.

craft-beer holidays

R.I.P.

Texas actor James Van Der Beek, beloved for Dawson's Creek, dies at 48

James Van Der Beek/Instagram

James Van Der Beek announced he was being treated for colorectal cancer in 2024.

Actor James David Van Der Beek has died, according to an announcement on his social media. He was 48 years old.

"Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning," the post reads. "He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity, and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.

Van Der Beek shared in 2020 that he and his family were moving to the Austin area, and they settled in Spicewood. He announced his colorectal cancer diagnosis in 2024.

In late 2025, Van Der Beek auctioned some of his TV memorabilia from his time on Dawson's Creek to pay for his treatment.

The actor originally starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in Dawson’s Creek and in later years parodied his own hunky persona.

Forever tied to ‘Dawson’s Creek'
A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie Varsity Blues and on TV in CSI: Cyber as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to Dawson’s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.

The series followed a group of high school friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, then 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.

With Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait,” as its moody theme song, Dawson's Creek helped define The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.

“While James' legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world,” Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote to his widow on Instagram. Katharine McPhee Foster added: “This is just beyond devastating news.” Others posting messages of mourning were Jenna Dewan and Olivia Munn.

The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy affair with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes' character climbed through Dawson's bedroom window and they curled up together. Racier shows like Euphoria and Sex Education owe a debt to Dawson's Creek.

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha's “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that Dawson’s Creek was,” he told Vulture in 2013. “It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

A popular GIF and Varsity Blues
More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of the show’s third season became a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair with his best friend and burst into tears.

“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” Van Der Beek told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: “All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)

While still on Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek hosted Saturday Night Live — the musical guest was Everlast — and landed a plumb role in Varsity Blues, playing a second-string high school quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an injury.

Van Der Beek’s character, Mox, turns out to not be a football fanatic, preferring to read Kurt Vonnegut and yearning for the college education that will allow him to escape the jock mentality of his Texas town.

“I don’t want your life,” he screams at one point. Critic Roger Ebert called him “convincing and likable.

After Dawson’s Creek
Some of his projects after Dawson’s Creek included co-creating and playing Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, What Would Diplo Do? In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on How I Met Your Mother.

“The more you make fun of yourself and don’t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,” he told Vanity Fair in 2011. “I’ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man’s body.”

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like Criminal Minds, One Tree Hill, and How I Met Your Mother. He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23, and the short-lived CSI spinoff CSI: Cyber and CBS’ Friends With Better Lives.

He’s also appeared in movies such as Kevin Smith’s 2001 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and its 2019 sequel, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of The Rules of Attraction in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.

In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on The Masked Singer, after singing a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.

Early life as a theater kid
Van Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.

He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in Finding the Sun by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of Shenandoah at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.

He earned a scholarship to New Jersey’s Drew University but left school early when he was cast in Dawson’s Creek. In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his “selfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,” the university said.

Drew University President Hilary Link welcomed Van Der Beek with a popular quote from his Dawson’s Creek character: “Edge is fleeting,” she said, “but heart lasts forever. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that heart.”

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been established for the family.

___

AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and CultureMap Austin editor Brianna Caleri contributed to this report.

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