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Issue date: 10/3/08 Section: Weekender

We were just south of Swope Park when we had to make a quick detour.

We needed four 'C' batteries for a 1980s Panasonic tape recorder which a better man would have put money against ever recording any sound again.

The blank cassette tapes had been hard enough to find, but I thought we needed this kind of technology - it has a condenser mic! - to really capture the sounds of Oktoberfest. It was 5:30 p.m. on a Saturday, and the keg-tapping ceremony would commence at 6 p.m. sharp.

Maneuvering back onto the highway, we snapped the batteries into place on the back of the machine and ran through several sound tests.

Each test produced a different result, and sometimes a deafening high pitch sound, but eventually the words came through clear, as long as the volume wasn't up past five.

"Test, test. This is a test."

If we hurried we could be there in time for the traditional ceremony.

Things were looking good, and Weekender photographer Glenn Landberg said it out loud.

"We're golden."

Oktoberfest was taking place at the pavilion at Crown Center in downtown Kansas City. We arrived a few minutes after 6 p.m., but the ceremony was moving slowly as rogue German musicians kept weaving through the crowd and up to the stage.

Finally, Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser approached the keg with wooden mallet in hand and a presumably insatiable thirst for its contents.

Nine swings and the keg appeared tapped, as the plastic cup-wielding drunks clamored for position. It was a false start, though.

"We're going to try this again, it gets a little tricky," the man with the beard said.

Funkhouser, no doubt feeling the pressure now, hammered the keg three more times and beer started spraying wildly onto the masses.

Continued...

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