‘We were very fortunate:’ The annual Beaches Oktoberfest is kicking off following Hurricane Milton

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — We are seeing relief and resilience in Jacksonville Beach after Hurricane Milton.

“We were very fortunate because we had little negative impact to our community through Hurricane Milton,” said Jacksonville Beach Mayor Chris Hoffman.

Compared to communities in Southwest and Central Florida, Milton’s impacts were relatively limited in Jax Beach.

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“We were prepared and ready,” said Mayor Hoffman. “We did have some power outages and had a few downed trees but very quickly resolved throughout the evening.”

Just a day after the storm, the 9th annual Beaches Oktoberfest is happening Oct. 11th & 12th at the Sea Walk Pavilion.

“It’s going to be a big, big year,” said Michael Cordeiro, a vendor. “I think it’s going to be bigger than last year.”

With two stages of live music, over 20 local Jacksonville food trucks, and a lot of German beers, its a two-day festival for all ages.

“It’s an incredible festival celebrating art and culture,” said Charles Wagoner,  the co-founder of Beaches Oktoberfest.

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The setup for the festival typically starts on Tuesday.

But Milton threw a wrench in those plans.

“Those two days are major days because that’s when we build out all of our tents,” said Wagoner. “And then normally today we would just hang banners and the last-minute touches.”

The event’s organizers weren’t able to start setting up until after the storm passed on Thursday.

And it takes a village to put on this event.

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“We have about 100 people on site building out,” said Wagoner.

Many people in the community are grateful that Milton’s impacts were pretty minimal in Jax Beach.

And this two-day festival is helping some nearby businesses as well.

“We sell the October Steins too so you know people come out for that,” said Travis Wilkins, the executive chef at Jekyll Brewing in Jax Beach.

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