Charlestown Rathskeller Turns Oktoberfest Into a Three-Day Party With German Food, Live Music and Big Prizes

Charlestown Rathskeller Turns Oktoberfest Into a Three-Day Party With German Food, Live Music and Big Prizes Oct. 2–4, filling the historic wooded tavern with German-inspired food, cold beer, three days of live music and a raffle lineup that ranges from gift cards to beer for a year and a Vermont getaway.

This isn’t a Saturday-afternoon Oktoberfest squeezed into a few hours.

The Rathskeller is making a weekend of it, with festivities running Friday through Sunday at its Old Coach Road property in Charlestown. A special menu brings the German flavors, while a different band takes over each day and raffle prizes are drawn throughout the weekend.

The restaurant’s own pitch gets right to the point: “Come for the Oktoberfest. Stay for the prizes.”

Considering what’s being given away, that’s not much of an exaggeration.

Start With the German Food

The Rathskeller is supplementing its regular offerings with an Oktoberfest menu built around dishes that go well beyond adding a pretzel to the bar menu.

Currywurst brings one of Germany’s great street foods to Charlestown: sausage served with the distinctive curry-spiced sauce that became a postwar favorite in Berlin.

There are Rathskeller soft pretzels, along with frikadellen, the German seasoned meat patties that land somewhere between a meatball and a small hamburger.

For something more substantial, the menu includes cider-braised pork shank and sauerbraten, the traditional German pot roast known for its sweet-and-sour character and long marinating process.

And because this is still an American fall festival in Rhode Island, there are funnel cakes for dessert.

Add cold beer, and the Rathskeller has the food-and-drink side of Oktoberfest well covered.

Three Days, Three Bands

The music changes every day, giving each part of the weekend a different personality.

Friday: AD/HD

AD/HD kicks off the music Friday from 8 to 11 p.m.

The AC/DC tribute act draws from both major periods of the Australian band’s career, covering music associated with original frontman Bon Scott as well as the Brian Johnson era.

That opens Oktoberfest with hard rock rather than polka.

Admission for the performance is listed at $10 in advance and $15 at the door, plus applicable advance ticketing fees.

Saturday: Wicked Peach

Saturday belongs to a band plenty of southeastern Connecticut music fans already know.

Wicked Peach performs from 8 to 11 p.m.

The regional rock band dates to 1996 and has built its following through decades of shows around southeastern Connecticut and southern New England.

Its repertoire stretches across several generations of rock and pop-rock, making the Saturday night show less about a single artist or era than the kind of recognizable songs designed to keep a weekend crowd moving.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

Sunday: Timeless

The weekend shifts gears for its finale.

Timeless performs Sunday from 4 to 7 p.m., turning the final day into more of an afternoon and early-evening party.

The Rhode Island-based group has been performing since 2016, mixing classic rock, pop, country and dance music. Its résumé includes appearances at venues including Bally’s Twin River and Hard Rock Boston.

Sunday’s show is also listed at $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

Together, the three bookings give Oktoberfest three very different musical flavors: an AC/DC tribute Friday, regional rock favorites Wicked Peach Saturday and a broad party-band mix from Timeless Sunday.

Then There Are the Prizes

This is where the Rathskeller’s Oktoberfest gets unusually ambitious.

Raffle drawings take place throughout all three days, and the prizes grow substantially beyond T-shirts and promotional swag.

Organizers are advertising hundreds of dollars in Rathskeller gift cards, Oktoberfest merchandise and DownBack tickets alongside some much larger prizes.

Friday’s festivities build toward a $500 Rathskeller gift card drawing at midnight.

Saturday brings one of the weekend’s attention-getters: Beer for a Year. Another prize offers a dinner for two and wine every month for a year.

Sunday answers with Wine for a Year and perhaps the weekend’s most distinctive prize, a two-night getaway for two to the von Trapp family’s Vermont resort and brewery, including a brewery tour and a $200 dining credit.

There’s also a 2027 DownBack VIP pass among the prizes.

The raffle rules make entering relatively easy. There is no purchase necessary, but participants must be 21 or older and must physically visit the Charlestown Rathskeller on the day of the drawing to enter.

Entries are valid only for that day’s drawings and don’t carry over into the following day.

Visitors don’t have to spend the entire day waiting to see if they’ve won. Winners can be contacted by email after the drawing.

That makes it possible to stop in during the afternoon, enter the raffle, have something to eat and return later for the night’s band without spending eight hours guarding a raffle ticket.

Oktoberfest at a Place That Dates to 1933

The setting gives the weekend considerably more character than a temporary beer tent in a parking lot.

The Charlestown Rathskeller traces its history to 1933, the same year Prohibition ended nationally.

Its secluded location in the woods became part of its identity, and the property has long traded on the atmosphere of an old roadside tavern tucked away from the main coastal route.

Today’s Rathskeller is considerably larger than a single historic dining room.

The property combines the restaurant and tavern with patios, outdoor gathering spaces, games including cornhole and bocce and the seasonal DownBack entertainment area.

DownBack adds outdoor bars, food, a large fire pit and a concert stage to the wooded property.

Its regular music season runs through the warmer months into October, making Oktoberfest an appropriate way to push the outdoor-party atmosphere into fall.

Three Days Instead of One Big Rush

The format also gives visitors options.

Someone interested primarily in the food and raffles doesn’t necessarily need to arrive for an 8 p.m. concert. AC/DC fans have a reason to choose Friday. Wicked Peach followers can make Saturday their night. Families or people who don’t want to stay out late can take advantage of Timeless’ earlier Sunday performance.

And because raffle prizes are spread across the weekend, there’s a reason to return.

That makes this less like a conventional Oktoberfest with a fixed four-hour program and more like the Rathskeller temporarily changing its personality for an entire weekend.

German-inspired food provides the theme.

The beer certainly helps.

But between three bands, three days of drawings and prizes that include everything from gift cards to a Vermont brewery getaway, the Rathskeller has built plenty around the beer steins.

More information is available at the Event Website link below. To purchase tickets for the individual live music performances, click the Event Ticketing link below.

Details

Event: Charlestown Rathskeller Oktoberfest
Dates: Friday–Sunday, Oct. 2–4, 2026
Location: Charlestown Rathskeller
Address: 489A Old Coach Road, Charlestown, RI 02813
Oktoberfest Menu: Currywurst, Rathskeller soft pretzels, frikadellen, cider-braised pork shank, sauerbraten and funnel cakes
Friday Music: AD/HD, 8–11 p.m.
Saturday Music: Wicked Peach, 8–11 p.m.
Sunday Music: Timeless, 4–7 p.m.
Music Tickets: $10 advance/$15 at the door for the listed performances; advance ticketing fees may apply
Raffles: Drawings throughout all three days
Major Prizes: Rathskeller gift cards, Beer for a Year, Wine for a Year, monthly dinner-and-wine package, 2027 DownBack VIP pass and a two-night Vermont getaway
Raffle Admission: No purchase necessary
Raffle Age: 21+
Raffle Rules: Entrants must visit the Rathskeller in person on the applicable day; entries do not carry over to subsequent days
Setting: Historic tavern, restaurant and wooded outdoor entertainment property with the seasonal DownBack area
Weather: Outdoor portions of the weekend may be affected by weather; check with the Rathskeller for any day-of changes

 

 

Featured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people, location, or activities shown.