Auf wiedersehen: Last shout for Brisbane Oktoberfest

It is auf wiedersehen to the popular Brisbane Oktoberfest with the company behind the popular event appointing liquidators amid increasingly tough conditions in the hospitality sector.

Kim and Boris Zoulek who founded Brisbane Oktoberfest 15 years ago.

It is auf wiedersehen to the popular Brisbane Oktoberfest. Festival directors Kim and Boris Zoulek have told supporters that the 2022 festival was the last to be organised by their company amid increasingly tough conditions in the hospitality sector.

The couple, who founded the festival more than 15 years ago, have appointed liquidators to their company Oktoberfest Brisbane as they wind up the business.

Boris Zoulek stresses no-one will be left in the lurch, with staff and suppliers all paid in full. “The past few years have brought about the biggest challenges our industry has ever faced,” the couple said in a statement.

They added the hospitality landscape had changed substantially post pandemic with more competition from international events and varying consumer spending.

“Over the past few months it has become clear that if the festival were to take place in 2023 we would not be able to deliver the same authentic German experience you have come to expect and love. And if there’s one thing we won’t do, it’s compromise on your experience.”

Last year’s Oktoberfest attracted more than 30,000 people to the Brisbane Showgrounds keen to experience six days of live oompah music, bier and bratwurst after Covid-19 lockdowns.

The Zouleks say that when the first festival was held back in 2008, they had no idea “the authentic, all-yodelling, all-dancing, bratwurst-eating, magnificent teenager it would become.”

Over the past 15 years, it has welcomed nearly half a million “honorary Germans” who downed around two million bratwursts, munched on over 1.5 million pretzels, danced to nearly 800 hours of oompah music and sipped on over a million traditionally brewed biers.

“We say farewell knowing Brisbane was privy to the most authentic celebration of German culture outside of Bavaria,” they said.

The couple originally met at an Oktoberfest event 15 years ago where Boris was selling pretzels and it was love at first sight.

Boris says he would “never say never” to reviving the event one day but their priority now was the care of their two young children.

Oktoberfest at the Brisbane RNA grounds last year

Truckin Success

The big rig boys are popping the champagne corks north of Brisbane with Brown and Hurley Caboolture named Kenworth dealer of the year.

Since becoming the first dealer group to distribute Kenworth trucks in Australia in 1964, Brown and Hurley have expanded operations over the years with dealerships located throughout Queensland and New South Wales’ Northern Rivers.

Caboolture is their latest full-service dealership, opening its doors in 2015.

Strategically located close to service trucking routes north of Brisbane and the largest of the Brown and Hurley Group dealers, Caboolture provides another link in the chain for Brown and Hurley.

The award was presented at Kenworth manufacturer PACCAR’s annual dealer event with Brown and Hurley Caboolture being announced victors among PACCAR’s 93 locations across Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.

The Kenworth dealer of the year accolade is awarded to the dealership with the highest ranking across five main areas: customer service, truck sales, finance and leasing, parts support, and overall dealership performance.

At the awards ceremony, PACCAR Australia managing director Andrew Hadjikakou applauded the Caboolture dealership for its outstanding performance and unwavering commitment to customers.

Brown and Hurley

Clear Sailing

Dr Sam Haynes, owner and skipper of the Sydney to Hobart’s winning yacht Celestial, has his sights set on making sailing history and putting his name on The Courier-Mail Cup when the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race sets sail on Good Friday.

Celestial is one of 28 yachts entered to date in the iconic Queensland blue water classic organised and presented annually by the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club (QCYC) with a month left before entries close on March 20.

Celestial set a new race record in last year’s Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race for a conventionally ballasted yacht, completing the 308 nautical mile race in 19 hours, 24 minutes and 52 seconds. Celestial broke a record that had been held by Bobsled (Robert Bird and Kerry Spencer) since 1993 for their course time of 21 hours, 59 minutes, and 43 seconds. “The conditions were ideal downwind with big following seas. We held on for what was both challenging and exhilarating sailing,” Haynes says.