Oktoberfest Topic During Tourism Meeting
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The Oktoberfest, whose parade was the only part not confined to a small area of town, was discussed at the Sept. 19 joint tourism meeting.
By MARK EVANS
STE. GENEVIEVE HERALD
During a short joint tourism meeting on Sept. 18, reports were given on the previous weekend’s Oktoberfest.
“I heard it worked well,” City Administrator Happy Welch said. “Everything was concentrated between Main Street and Front Street.”
“It seemed to work out well,” Joe Steiger, aldermanic liaison, said.
“Last year there were several complains, one was about a band stand that was set up on Main Street,” Mike Fallert said.
He said that he felt “that confined area, off the main street,” worked well.
“We weren’t stopping traffic, everybody seemed to enjoy that location because it was off the street,” he said. I had no negative feedback.”
Nichole French, however, said she had heard some negative comments.
“They felt it was smaller,” French said. “They liked it spread out throughout town.”
There were also complaints about “a big gap” occurring in the idle of the parade.
“I think there was a gap of a minute or so,” Steiger said. “I think the second group kind of trickled in. I think the police escort left too soon and everybody didn’t realize they were leaving.”
Mike Fallert said he would mention these things to Kara Burk, who coordinated the festival, so they can be addressed in the future.
He noted that the decision to confine the location was to “keep down from the negativity from the previous year,”
Fallert said the Audubon had “a very good turnout of people.”
It was also noted that the Ste. Genevieve History Conference enjoyed a good turnout at the community center that same Saturday.
NEW BUSINESS
Welch reported that interviews were starting that week for the position of tourism director.
They also reviewed 2023 MMG advertising. A total of $16,000 is being spent on print advertising, $9,000 on television, $6,000 on radio and $19,000 on digital advertising.
Welch expressed concern that the TV figure was for ad time only, without production costs figured in.
He noted that work will be ongoing on creating a marketing plan, which should “dovetail” with this advertising.
Welch also handed out a form that can be filled out by organizations hoping to get the TTC to help promote events.