The banner on East Campbell Avenue lists festival hours until 6 p.m. on Saturday. Alcohol ticket sales end at 5 p.m., and last call is at 5:30 p.m. If you arrive at 5:45, the festival is still open, but alcohol service has ended.
The festival's FAQ lists alcohol ticket-sale and last-call times separately from the overall festival hours. For the 31st Annual Campbell Oktoberfest, running October 17 and 18, 2026, those times are useful to know before planning your Saturday.
What's Actually Set Up on Campbell Avenue
The footprint is bigger than a single street fair. According to the festival's own site, Oktoberfest occupies Historic Downtown Campbell along East Campbell Avenue between Third Street and Harrison Avenue, and spills a block onto the side streets and into several of the large downtown parking lots. Saturday runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
At the center of it is the Biersch Garten, sponsored by Gordon Biersch Brewing Company, with the Zicke Zacke Band providing German music on its stage across both days. Four additional stages carry local bands through genres the Chamber lists as rock, R&B, blues, country and more, alongside a Community Stage for local musicians, dance teams and martial arts studios. The festival also runs a Stein-Holding Contest and a Best Dressed Contest on both days, and a Braumeister home-brewing contest judged Saturday with winners announced inside the Biersch Garten. Kids get their own space at the Kinderplatz. First Aid is staffed by Campbell CERT and located on the side of the Starbucks on First Street, just off East Campbell Avenue, which is worth remembering before you need it rather than after.
None of this is new to the neighborhood. The event has been running for more than three decades under the Campbell Chamber of Commerce, and it's the kind of fixture that shapes how downtown works for one weekend a year more than any single restaurant opening does.
The Morning Clock: A Fun Run Before the Tents Fill
The festival isn't the only scheduled thing happening that Saturday. The Chamber also runs the Oktoberfest Fun Run, in its 19th year for 2026, offering a 10K, a 5K and a Kids' Dash the same morning the festival opens. Registration with a race shirt and medal had its deadline extended to October 8. If you're the type who runs before the Biersch Garten opens rather than after, this is the version of Oktoberfest weekend built for you, and it finishes well before the 10 a.m. festival start.
The Evening Clock: Festival Hours and Alcohol Service Times
The festival's official FAQ says alcohol ticket sales end at 5 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, with last call at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The FAQ says the Campbell Police Department enforces these cutoff times.
| Saturday, Oct 17 | Sunday, Oct 18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Festival hours | 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Alcohol ticket sales end | 5 p.m. | 4 p.m. |
| Last call | 5:30 p.m. | 4:30 p.m. |
That means the festival's final 30 minutes each day are for music and food rather than alcohol service. If you plan to arrive after work on Saturday, alcohol ticket sales end at 5 p.m., with last call at 5:30 p.m.; the music continues after that.
One additional detail: you can bring your own stein into the festival, but it has to be empty at the gate. Vendors can't pour beer directly into personal glassware, so buy a ticket, get a festival cup, and pour that into your stein once you're through the line.
The Sunday Your Farmers Market Isn't There
If you're a regular at the Downtown Campbell Farmers' Market, this is the weekend to build around rather than assume runs on autopilot. The market, produced by the Urban Village Farmers' Market Association, operates every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. along East Campbell Avenue and is consistently ranked among the best in the South Bay. But its own listing carries a standing exception: no market on the third weekend of October, because Oktoberfest occupies the same stretch of street.
October 18, 2026 is the third Sunday of the month, which puts it squarely inside that exception. If your Sunday routine is coffee, then a lap through the produce stalls, then home, this is the week that routine gets replaced rather than supplemented. The festival takes the space the market usually holds, not just the calendar slot next to it.
The market's listing notes the October exception, while the festival's site does not cross-reference it. Checking both schedules can help you plan Sunday morning.
Planning Around Oktoberfest Weekend
Oktoberfest weekend in Campbell includes a Saturday morning fun run, alcohol service that ends before the festival closes, and no Downtown Campbell Farmers' Market on Sunday.
None of that makes the festival less worth attending. The Biersch Garten, the Zicke Zacke Band, the stein-holding contests and the Kinderplatz are the same draw they've been for three decades, and the Chamber has clearly built enough of a following that Metro readers have voted it a top South Bay festival in multiple years. Checking the festival schedule, alcohol-service times and market listing can help you plan around the weekend.
If you want the specific details before the weekend arrives, including the current festival map and entertainment schedule, Campbell Oktoberfest's own site keeps its FAQ page updated closer to the date than any secondhand list will.
For everything else happening on this stretch of Campbell Avenue between now and the holidays, Gummow Brothers keeps an eye on what's happening in the neighborhood.
