Rising star rocks the accordion
Region says ‘auf Wiedersehen’ to 49th edition of Oktoberfest
KITCHENER — Oktoberfest is helping a polka-loving boy achieve his big accordion dreams.
He’s 13 and already has been playing for seven years. He performed Saturday at the Kitchener Market, in lederhosen and an Alpine hat, smiling broadly while busking for cash, fingers flying while he squeezed his Guerrini instrument.
The tune: “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” made famous by John Denver.
Marko Kecskemeti is a rising star. The previous weekend he earned $170 from passersby while playing for three hours. Cash he’s earned at earlier gigs helped pay for a trip to Germany.
“I’m really wanting to take this to another level when I get older. I want to join a band,” he said. Think drummer, two guitars, one accordion.
Marko got into the accordion because he has eastern European roots and he saw it played at family gatherings. “I kind of thought it was pretty cool. It’s an entire band in one instrument,” he said.
Now he’s halfway through his accordion education. Sometimes he entertains his classmates at Canadian Martyrs Catholic Elementary School, where he figures he’s the only accordion player.
He’s been having a blast this month. Nothing says Oktoberfest better than an accordion. Marko always looks forward it. “It just brings fun in my mind,” he said.
While Marko played his tunes, market patrons got a literal taste of Oktoberfest at the “Cook Like Oma” demonstration of German cuisine, held on the final day of the
annual beer-and-bratwurst festival.
Chef Darryl Fletcher — you may know him as ChefD of chefDtv.com — showed the audience how to prepare braised cabbage with onions and apples, home-fried potatoes, and schnitzel.
Fletcher has German roots. This is food he grew up eating. German cuisine is practical and budget-minded, he explained. There’s lots of pork, a cheaper meat, and dishes often use cheaper cuts. It’s salt and pepper more than spice, sausage more often than steak. These are affordable meals meant to sustain a working family.
“When they came over to Canada, not having a lot of money, they wanted to make it stretch,” he said.
The audience learned how-to and also how-not-to when the first round of schnitzel burned from oil that was too hot. “I’m a chef, people expect perfection, but we also make mistakes,” Fletcher said.
The meal impressed couple Ruth Dejong and James Grubb. They typically buy ready-to-cook schnitzel. They may now try to prepare it themselves.
“To me, Oktoberfest always means the food,” Dejong said. And maybe also the music: “I learned to polka at a very early age.”
He has German roots. She has Dutch roots. This couple knows cabbage, but had never seen it braised in this fashion. Perhaps they’ll make it for their parents.
“Both my parents are big cabbage lovers,” Dejong said. “My parents grew cabbage, ate a lot of cabbage,” Grubb said.
The 49th annual festival concluded Saturday with an eye to next year, the 50th Oktoberfest. Expect 50 activities and celebrations including an anniversary book to be unveiled in February and a special concert on the eve of the next festival.
Alfred Lowrick is pleased with how Oktoberfest 49 unfolded. Attendance was up, he said, and organizers are thinking about ways to improve sites and activities in downtown Kitchener and on Ardelt Avenue.
“Overall it has been a wonderful success,” said Lowrick, the festival’s interim executive director. “I’m looking forward to a whole bunch of different things and anticipate a lot of interest in Oktoberfest next year.”