Bockfest 2025 with Carissa Barnes

Carissa Barnes, Communications Director for the City of West Bend, joins me to discuss the upcoming 2nd annual Bockfest, set to take place on March 1, 2025, at Regner Park in West Bend. This event celebrates the transition from winter to spring with traditional German festivities, focusing on bock beer and unique experiences like fire-poking the beer to enhance its flavor. Carissa shares insights on last year's successful Bockfest, which drew attendees from seven states and generated significant tourism for the area. Listeners will learn about new enhancements for this year's festival, including improved layout and a token system for quicker transactions. With live music, local business participation, and the promise of a fun-filled day, Bockfest is shaping up to be an event not to be missed!

Takeaways:

• The second annual Bockfest will take place at Regner Park on March 1, 2025.
• The event features traditional German festivities, focusing on bock beer and fire poking.
• Bockfest was created to drive tourism and support local businesses in West Bend.
• Attendees will receive five 'bock bucks' to use at participating downtown businesses.
• This year, Bockfest will implement token systems for faster transactions and improved experience.
• Live music will be featured throughout the event, with various local artists performing.

Links referenced in this episode:

• bockfestwb.com

Episode Transcript

Fuzz Martin (00:08):
You know, it's fitting that I'm launching this episode today,
January 21st, 2025, since the number ofschools are closed due to cold weather.
It's unbelievably cold.
It's so cold.
I consider myself a cold weatheranimal, but No sir, I don't like it.
You know what I do like?
I like warmer weather, I like hangingout on the couch under a blanket when

(00:30):
it's negative 16 degrees outside,and I like West Bend's Bockfest.
This week, Carissa Barnes, CommunicationsDirector for the City of West Bend,
joins me to talk about their secondannual Bockfest celebration, which
is happening at West Bend's RegnerPark on Saturday, March 1st, 2025.
Last year was bonkers, in a good way.

(00:52):
I saw so many friends, the weatherwas perfect, and everyone should
experience getting their beer poked.
some time in their life.
And I'll let you figure out whatthat means during this interview.
With that, here are 15 minutes onBockfest 2025 with Carissa Barnes
here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
Carissa

(01:21):
Thank you so much for coming in today.
We are in the thick of coldweather season here, and, Exactly.
And as this, as this podcast episode.
Launches, just had the winterwarm up in downtown West Bend.
So we're all lookingforward to warmer weather.
And it's time to look forwardto some more outdoor events.
So that's where Bockfest comesinto play, and that's what

(01:43):
we're going to talk about today.
Sound good?

Carissa Barnes (01:44):
Sounds good.
All right.

Fuzz Martin (01:46):
So can you first tell us what Bockfest is?
Just give us an overview forthose who maybe didn't get
to experience the first one.

Carissa Barnes (01:53):
Bockfest celebrates the end of winter, and the start of spring
with traditional, German festivities.
So for our event specifically, though,it's really focused around Bock beer,
so, we'll have Bock beer there aswell as other beers, but the idea
behind it is that, you can get yourBock beer fire poked, which would
more or less caramelize your beer, soit's an interesting taste and flavor.

(02:16):
And that's kind of whatmakes Bockfest unique.

Fuzz Martin (02:18):
Yea, Yea, absolutely.
And it's, uh, it's a total experiencetoo so it tastes caramelized and, and
good and also, um, they're stickinga hot fire poker in your beer.

Carissa Barnes (02:28):
Yes, exactly.

Fuzz Martin (02:30):
So, which is not an experience that most of
us get on a, Regular basis.
How did it get started?
Bockfest this is the secondyear of Bockfest right?

Carissa Barnes (02:37):
Yes, so this will be our second year.
The first year really came with,the Tourism Commission has a yearly
grant, that they were really,um, pushing for, the community to
come up with new events within thecommunity to really drive tourism.
specifically overnight stays.
So, Bock Fest, the idea came out aboutwith Visit West Bend, to really create

(02:59):
that new event for the community.
In addition, they received aGEM grant from, Travel Wisconsin.

Fuzz Martin (03:06):
Sure.
Yeah.
Um, and so that helps to fund this kind ofevent to help bring more individuals into
West Bend, as you said, to drive tourism.
They always say heads in beds, right?

Carissa Barnes (03:16):
Yes, heads in beds.
Um, and then this yearwe got really lucky.
The Tourism Commission saw how successfulthe event was and, they decided
to, put dollars towards it again.
So we will have funding from theTourism Commission as well as
we received some small fundingfrom the GEM grant once again.

Fuzz Martin (03:33):
Great.
Excellent.
So let's talk about, whatthat success means, right?
So when you bring individualsin for this event, It doesn't
just help the event, right?

Carissa Barnes (03:42):
Yes.
The main idea, I guess, forBockfest is yes, to have fun, enjoy
the beer, everything like that.
But we also have, the opportunity toreally drive traffic to West Bend.
One of the perks of getting a ticket toBockfest is you get a 5 coupon to downtown
businesses, that are participating.

Fuzz Martin (04:01):
Are those the Bocks bucks?

Carissa Barnes (04:02):
Those are the Bock bucks.
The Bock bucks, yeah.
Yep.
Um, and it's really acoupon that allows you.
to, visit one of ourparticipating businesses.
Most of them are downtown and we'rereally trying to, bring that traffic
back to downtown, spend some fundingthere, as well as hopefully stay
overnight at one of our hotels.

Fuzz Martin (04:19):
Sure.
So, people spend money at therestaurants and shops and hotels
and it helps, the machine.

Carissa Barnes (04:25):
Yes!
Exactly.

Fuzz Martin (04:26):
Uh, very good.
So.
Last year was the first event, andas you said, it was very successful.
And obviously, being the firstevent, you guys learned some stuff.
What, what kind of new thingsare we expecting to see
this year at, at BockFest?

Carissa Barnes (04:39):
We're changing up the layout a little bit.
Last year we had our food and beveragein one area, so we're going to kind
of separate them out as well ashave more beer locations so that
it's all not located at one spot.
We definitely want to make sure peopleare getting their beer as soon as
possible so they can get it firepoked.

Fuzz Martin (04:56):
Yes.
And there was, I mean, A lot ofconversations happening in the line.
I mean, there was, and it was abeautiful day last year as well.

Carissa Barnes (05:03):
It was beautiful.

Fuzz Martin (05:04):
So, it was

Carissa Barnes (05:04):
Knock on wood for this year.

Fuzz Martin (05:05):
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
I would knock on this table, but thenwe'll all hear it through the microphone.
I'll have to edit that out.
Um, but there's the, thebeer, and then there's food.
It's German food, right?
Yes.
Is that the case?
Let's talk a little bitmore about the fire poking.
So somebody gets a beer.
How does that process work?

Carissa Barnes (05:24):
We're very thankful for our fire department.
They'll be volunteering and they more orless have a fire and they're going to get
their poker steaming hot and they put thatright into the beer, into the mug that you
actually get when you walk in the door.
And that really caramelizes the beerand creates this frothy caramelized.
Goodness on top.

Fuzz Martin (05:45):
Good, very good.
So this year, people are stillgetting the, is the glass like, stein?
Yep,

Carissa Barnes (05:50):
we're definitely going to do it again.

Fuzz Martin (05:51):
Alright, excellent!
Yes, I have a very nice big steinin our house and looking forward
to having another one this year.
Live music is also a part of this event.
Can you tell us about, what kindof music and things people can
expect from an entertainment side?

Carissa Barnes (06:05):
We kick off the event at 11 a.
m.,
with our local river city, Blaskapel.
They were with us last year, verywell known within our community.
And then at 1230, we have Copperbox.
They're out from Oshkosh, andthey play a lot of familiar
songs with kind of a fresh twist.
And then we have the Squeezettescoming back again at 2 p.
m.,
but this year our headliner is MollyB and the Squeeze Box with Ted Lang.

(06:30):
She is an award winning vocalist,and will have a lot of high
energy like we had last year.

Fuzz Martin (06:35):
Awesome.
Awesome.
Looking forward to that.
And so what, what time does, so let's,I, we didn't even talk about the dates.
This is happening on Saturday,March 1st, is that right?

Carissa Barnes (06:44):
Yep, March 1st at Regner Park.

Fuzz Martin (06:46):
And what time does it start?

Carissa Barnes (06:47):
11 a.
m.

Fuzz Martin (06:48):
Okay, and this is something you can't just walk
up to and buy tickets, right?

Carissa Barnes (06:52):
Yes, only advanced sales.
That really helps us managefiguring out how many steins we
need and all of that kind of stuff.

Fuzz Martin (06:59):
And you guys have some really cool merch this year
that you can buy as well, right?
Yep.
Yes, I forgot, I bought somethingand I can't remember what I bought.
It is a 21 and older event, and you shouldleave the kids with the babysitter, right?

Carissa Barnes (07:11):
Yes.
Yep.
But we will have, our transportationshuttle again that will take you from
downtown to Regner Park and back.
So we're really thankful forour sponsor, the Garden Lounge.

Fuzz Martin (07:22):
Very good.
And then, There's also some optionsfor designated drivers as well, right?

Carissa Barnes (07:26):
Yep.
So if you decide to be a designateddriver, you can get a wristband
and then you, any non alcoholicbeverages you can get for free.

Fuzz Martin (07:33):
Very good.
If somebody wants to buy tickets to this,first of all, what's the deadline to
do that and also where can they do so?

Carissa Barnes (07:40):
Yep.
Um, that's the Friday before,and that's Bockfestwb.
com.

Fuzz Martin (07:45):
All right.
Bockfest is B O C K.
F E S T W D B dot com.
Um, thank you.
There we go.
Talking about those Bock Bucks again.
So you get that with your entry.
You said it's five, five Bock Bucks.
Is that right?
And then are they, where,where can they all be used?

Carissa Barnes (08:01):
There's a full list on our website that you can check out.
It's a variety of downtown businessesas well as beyond downtown.
But a lot of local restaurants, thespecialty shops, those kind of things.

Fuzz Martin (08:11):
Sure.
Okay.
Excellent.
Reflecting on last year's Bockfestwhat were some of the biggest successes
that you saw overall from, , boththe event and tourism itself?

Carissa Barnes (08:22):
We were really proud to say that we had over,
seven states that we actually sawtraffic come to West Bend from.
We had a decent amount of overnightstays, as well as, We reached our
ticket goals, so that was reallysurprising for the first year, so
we're really thankful for that.
And some things that we are also goingto do this year that's a little different
is instead of, cash for, beer and merch,we're actually going to do tokens.

(08:47):
So you purchase a, set of tokensand use that throughout the events.
We're hoping that will also speedup some of the lines and beer
and all of that kind of stuff.
Sure.
Not making

Fuzz Martin (08:55):
change and, and, uh, serving the beer and all that stuff as well.
Yes.
Oh, that's a, that's a great idea.
And it's great that it was so successfullast year that these changes needed
to be implemented and that you guystook that feedback and made them.
It was a lot of fun and I'm sureit's going to be a ton of fun again.
this year as well.
So, looking ahead, what are some ofthe future aspirations of Bockfest?

Carissa Barnes (09:18):
We definitely want to grow it, and we're really thinking of Regner
Park as its entirety throughout the park.
We would love to actually havetwo locations to have different
music in different spots.
Right now it's really focused on polkamusic, which we absolutely love, but
it'd be great to also have a differentvariety of music throughout the park.

Fuzz Martin (09:35):
Sure, to the Bockfest Rockfest?
No.
Oh, we can workshop that, Carissa.
The, again, the website is Bockfestwb.
com and you need to signup before the, the Friday?
You said the The

Carissa Barnes (09:48):
Friday before, I think that's February 28th.

Fuzz Martin (09:50):
February 28th.
Okay, very good.
These kind of events are big generatorsfor tourism and such like that.
So, Bockfest was created becauseyou put out, something to A plea.
Yeah, a plea to the community.
And they gave you ideas and this is oneof them that came out and it was great.
Are there, are you still doing that?
Are there more of those orwas this just the one then?

Carissa Barnes (10:12):
In 2025 this year, the downtown West Bend association received
the tourism grant for, their global fest.
Okay.
as well as, from my understanding, thetourism commission would like to open
it again for 2026 in hopes to findanother organization that will step up
and hopefully come up with a new idea.

Fuzz Martin (10:28):
Great, excellent.
And again, as the more thatthese happen, the better it is
for our local businesses and.
You as a community member orsomebody outside the community
get to have something fun to do.
This has been great.
The Downtown West Bend Associationhas been great at bringing
events for downtown as well.
And kudos to them.
And, I just enjoy havingsomething fun in the community.

(10:51):
I think it's, it's great forthe community as a whole.
to make good space of thisbeautiful park that's here in West
Bend during this time of year.

Carissa Barnes (10:58):
Yep, it's definitely one in a million.

Fuzz Martin (11:01):
Carissa, thank you so much for coming in.
We appreciate it and Ilook forward to seeing you.
I will not be wearing lederhosen, butlook forward to seeing you at Bockfest.

Carissa Barnes (11:09):
Thanks.

Fuzz Martin (11:10):
Thank you so much to Carissa Barnes of the City of
West Bend for hanging out withme and talking about Bockfest.
Fest 2025.
It's going to be a great timeand you don't want to miss it.
So get your tickets at Bockfestwb.
com today.
Again, you got to buy them in advance.
Speaking of advance, these episodescome on, on Tuesdays, subscribe to the
show on Apple podcasts, Spotify, andYouTube, or listen to them at fuzzmartin.

(11:34):
com.
If you have an idea for a guestfor the show, raise your beer
poking hand and send me a note.
You can email me fuzz at fuzzmartin.
com, that is fuzz at fuzzmartin.
com or use the form fuzzmartin.
com slash guest, andthey'll come right to me.
Next week, I'll be joined bySteve Kennetts of Milwaukee Tool.

(11:56):
How cool is that?
And with that, I'll talk toyou next Tuesday right here
on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.