Christ the King Oktoberfest 2026: Cake Wheels, Blanton's, and Where We Parked

Christ the King Oktoberfest has been running on the cathedral grounds at 299 Colony Blvd, in the heart of Chevy Chase, for over 30 years, it's free to walk into, and it's a festival I've been to enough times to have habits at. This year we went both nights: Friday late, when the crowd is biggest and parking is hardest, and Saturday early enough to walk every tent and write things down.

Is it kid-friendly? Absolutely.

There are inflatables, slides, and bounce houses, a row of carnival-style game tents, and a central ticket booth near the kids' area. The festival's own schedule has the kids' games running until 9pm both nights and the toddler area closing at 8, so if you're bringing little ones, come early. Two of the game tents had the biggest crowds of kids, and they're the two worth explaining.

The Cake Wheel is the staple. It's been here for years and it draws adults as much as kids. The boards are grids of numbered squares. You put a coin on a number, they spin the wheel, and if it lands on your number you get a slip of paper you carry into the gymnasium and trade for a cake. You can also play a double, with your coin on the line between two numbers, or a quad, on the corner where four squares meet, and you win if the wheel lands on any of them.

The cereal game blew my mind. Shelves of cereal boxes line the back of the tent, with a row of chip bags underneath for the kids who'd rather have Takis. Each kid gets a paddle with a number on it. On a table in the middle sits a ring of numbered wiffle balls, and in the center a heavier ball hangs on a string over a platform that spins. The platform slings the ball out into the wiffle balls and knocks some off, the ball swings back, gets slung again, and it keeps going until one wiffle ball is left standing. The kid holding that number picks their favorite box off the shelf. I was really tempted to play. An adult playing with a bunch of screaming kids would have looked a little awkward, but I like my Lucky Charms just as much as any kid there. Don't judge.

Between those two tents, it's the kid version of gambling, and they love it. There are several more games along the same row, and new to me this year was a hat bar, where a kid picks a hat, picks from a wall of patches, and the woman running it heat-presses them on while you wait.

The grown-up games

Bingo is the family tent. It's $2 a person, everything goes into one pot, and whoever bingos takes the pot. It was $68 when we walked by. You have to be 18 to play, but everyone sits together.

The casino tent is blackjack and roulette on real tables. It runs 6 to 11pm, which means it's closed for the first two hours on Friday and the first five on Saturday, and it's 21 and up. Blackjack tables are a $10 minimum buy-in; the rest of the tables are a $1 minimum.

The gymnasium

The gym is where cake wheel winners pick up their cake, and it's also where the bigger prizes live. There's a silent auction, and this year several bottles of Blanton's were on the table. Then there's Take A Chance: you buy tickets, print your name and phone number on each one, walk the tables, and drop a ticket in the box next to anything you'd like to win. Spa packages, restaurant gift cards, gift baskets, that kind of thing. We didn't play this year, but in years past it was in the $10 to $20 range for a set of tickets, from what I remember.

The German food tent

The German food tent is my favorite place to eat here, and it's where we ate again. I got the Meal Deal, the bratwurst with sauerkraut on top and the hot German potato salad, and added an apple strudel.

The menu this year, from the board: the German Meal Deal is $14.50 and gets you your choice of meat, sauerkraut, German potato salad or chips, a pickle spear, and a drink. A la carte, an Old Folks bratwurst or hot link is $6 (shredded sauerkraut on top is 50 cents more), the hot German potato salad side is $4, the sugared warm apple strudel is $4.50, and a hand-twisted salted soft pretzel is $5 with a 2-ounce cup of Copper Kettle beer cheese for $2. There's also a quarter-pound burger or cheeseburger for $6.50 and a quarter-pound all-beef hot dog for $5.50.

If you want something else, the other vendors this year were Knights of Columbus kettle corn, Little Caesar's, Moe's, Sav's Ice Cream, Bert's Speak-Cheesy, Bears Chicken Shack, Sharky's, and Drake's on Saturday only.

The beer

My wife and I each got a mug of the Kentucky Vanilla Barrel Cream Ale from Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. It's a cream ale aged in bourbon barrels with vanilla beans, and it had a nice vanilla note to it. It came in a really nice mug you get to take home.

The beer list ran 13 deep this year: Sam Adams Oktoberfest, Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, Kentucky Pumpkin Ale, Kentucky Irish Red, West Sixth Amber and IPA, Blue Moon, Angry Orchard, and the usual Miller Lite and Coors Light, plus a wine and seltzer list.

The music and the car

Friday's headliner was Big Head Todd and the Monsters at 9:30, and Saturday's was Honeychild at 9:15, right after the car raffle drawing at 9. Local bands fill the afternoon and early evening slots both days.

The car raffle is the big fundraiser: $50 a ticket, only 2,250 sold, and the winner takes a 2026 Ford Bronco Sport or $25,000 cash. The drawing is Saturday at 9pm on the grounds and on Facebook Live, and you don't have to be there to win.

What it actually cost

The Meal Deal from the German tent was $14.50, and that covered the brat, the sauerkraut, the hot German potato salad, a pickle spear, and a drink. The apple strudel was $4.50 on top of that. So $19 for my dinner, not counting the two beer mugs, and admission was free.

The parking story, since I write about this for a living

There's no lot. Everyone parks on the residential streets around the cathedral and walks in, and the walk is the only variable.

Friday we got there around 7, which is the worst time to show up for parking, and it was the soonest we could make it. We got lucky and found a spot on Hart Road, not too far down. About an 8 to 10 minute walk, and it wasn't bad at all.

Saturday we came in earlier, around 5:45, down Providence Lane, turned onto Eastover Drive, and parked along the side of the road a little way down. There were surprisingly few cars. Easy to park, easy to get in, easy to get out, and the same 8 to 10 minute walk.

The full rundown of the no-lot situation, the block-by-block sign rules, and the festival hours is on our Christ the King Oktoberfest parking page.

Should you go?

Yes. It's free, it's kid-friendly, the German tent is worth the line, and the cake wheel has been spinning for years. It runs one weekend every September, and we'll be back for the brats.