Oktoberfest bash on Sept. 20 Published Sept. 12, 2014 By Airman 1st Class Jelani Gibson 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- An Oktoberfest celebration will be taking place at hangar 1090 on base Sept. 20, 2014, at 7 p.m. Capt. Christian Scharnetzky, 90th Flying Training Squadron military training officer, looks forward to the event and what it represents. "It is meant as an appreciation event for the local community, the supporters, families and friends of Sheppard Air Force Base and the German community here in Wichita Falls," he said. "The German Air Force wants to express their gratitude for the hospitality we experience here every day by the host community and the host nation with a traditional German "fest.'" The event plans to offer a variety of German dishes, beer, music and other morale-based activities. "The event is set up with the help and resources the German community has here in Sheppard," Scharnetzky said. "All German families of our detachment are working on it. Spouses are baking cake to be sold during the fest, the German Air Force detachment is putting up the decoration and equipment the day of the event and all personnel working during the event are volunteers affiliated with the German community." According to the official Munich government website, the festival traces its history back to the royal marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1810. The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the ceremony and horse races took place to celebrate the event. Every horse race held in the subsequent years birthed the tradition known as Oktoberfest. Scharnetzky is excited to see how the event is received by the local community. "It is awesome to see how the community here amongst the German community and the Sheppard community is working together and everybody is pulling their weight to make this event 'the' event of the year in Sheppard and to see how people like it," he said. For more info on Oktoberfest go to http://www.muenchen.de/int/en/events/oktoberfest/history.html