Beer and brats flowing at Oktoberfest

Beer and brats were everywhere for Oktoberfest 2002 at Mills Park's Pony Express Pavilion on Saturday.

A light breeze barely lifted the banners off their posts as people visited booths or relaxed in the Beer Garden.

"This is a lot of fun," said Mound House resident Barbara Baker. "The German wine is really good and we're looking forward to the cloggers."

The fun is sponsored by the Carson City Library Foundation, an organization with a very real mission.

"We desperately need a larger building. We outgrew our library 10 years ago," said Sally Edwards, spokeswoman for the foundation. "The library was built when Carson City had 13,000 people. Right now, it has 2,000 visitors every day."

She said the library serves many outlying communities and is one of the largest in Northern Nevada, second only to Reno's library. If Saturday's crowd is any indication, the foundation's efforts should succeed.

"I haven't been here long, but business has been brisk," said Nevada state archivist Guy Rocha as he poured beer. "We hear they come in waves."

"Book sales have been fabulous," said Carol McIntyre, president of the Friends of the Carson City Library. "People were four deep this morning and it's been steady all day long. We should earn between $3,500 and $4,000 for the library, most of those sales $1 or $2 at a time."

Live entertainment was provided by Reno's Rhone River Stompers and the Capital City Clog Academy. A variety of craft booths offer everything from baskets to candles and entertainment for the kids included a pretzel toss, face painting and a jumping room. Craig Swope, local executive director of Cat-10 was master of ceremonies.

"This is wonderful, a fine turnout," said Carson City Supervisor Pete Livermore. "The library is important to this community and I think people understand that."

About 1,200 people attended the event, which is expected to earn about $12,000 for the library.