OktoberWest Gears Up For Another Year
Posted Monday, October 3, 2011 ; 05:44 PM
Updated Monday, October 3, 2011; 07:16 PM
Annual festival helps bring community together.
CHARLESTON – It’s that time again. Time to celebrate fall, and celebrate the West Side of Charleston. The fourth annual OktoberWest festival kicks off Saturday. Organizers said is a lot of fun, but this event is also bringing a community together.
“It’s really an old fashioned block party,” said West Side Main Street Executive Director Pat McGill. “It gets people out, it gets them over to the West Side to see what kind of things that we’ve been able to accomplish with revitalization and gets them used to coming to the West Side. We’re really pleased that it establishes a sense of community.”
But pulling this event off takes a lot of work. “[We have] lot’s of volunteers coming in,” McGill said. “We’ve got great sponsors this year and two new bands so we’re really looking forward to putting on a really nice event for the West Side.
This is the fourth year for OktoberWest, and organizers said it just keeps on getting bigger and better.
“We started out with around 700 people attending and last year we had about 1,200,” McGill said. “And this year we’re planning on having [more than] 1,500. So it’s grown every year. People have come to expect it as a fun event for the West Side.”
Oktoberwest kicks off with the dedication of the piers Saturday afternoon.
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