The smell of brats and pretzels and the sound of local bands filled South Pearl Street Saturday as the city celebrated German culture — and beer.

The South Pearl Street Association, with help from the Platt Park Brewing, held its second annual Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., honoring all things German culture with German cuisine, 11 local breweries, live music, costume contests and other family-friendly activities.

“South Pearl Street is a great neighborhood,” Aiden Holt, the event manager for the South Pearl Street Association, said. “We already have the biggest farmers market in Colorado every Sunday for half of the year. People know the street because of that. That’s why we decided to expand our festivities a little bit and add Oktoberfest.”

The first year was such a success, the festival sold out of beer, Holt said.

Initially, Oktoberfest is a festival held in Munich, Germany, every year on the last two weeks of September. The first celebration dates to 1810, when Germans celebrated the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria, who later became King Louis I, to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.

In America, the celebration has become a reason to come together, experience German culture and drink beer.

“It’s one of the better Oktoberfests in the city,” Mitch Rivard said of his second year at the festival. “People just really get into it here.”

“It’s a beautiful day and it’s a nice part of town. People watching and listening to good music and eating good food. Just being together,” Lauren Feldman, who was attending the festival for the first time, said about why she was enjoying it.

Feldman and Alan Streur were walking around the festival with hard pretzel strung about their necks, an Oktoberfest tradition.

“I bring it for sustenance while you’re having a beer,” Feldman joked.

And beer was certainly flowing.

For example, Bierstadt Lagerhaus, a Denver-based lager-only brewpub, was showing off their traditional German lagers.

“Oktoberfest is steeped in tradition, and we are, too,” Bryan Schmittel, sales director for Bierstadt Lagerhaus, said.

The owners of the brewery were trained traditionally in Germany and Belgium. While in Germany, they found a 30-gallon copper kettle at a brewery that was built in Germany in 1932.

The German brewery was upgrading their kettle, so they sold the old one to the brewers, who took it back to Denver and started Bierstadt Lagerhaus in 2016.

Stein hoisting competitions were also held throughout the day — a classic Bavarian tradition in which brave beer holders compete to see who can hold a one-liter stein out at arms length the longest.

Beer fans who missed the South Pearl festival should not despair. The Denver Oktoberfest, held in the Ballpark District neighborhood, begins on Sept. 20. Also, the Great American Beer Festival is right around the corner, taking place at Colorado Convention Center on the weekend of Oct. 10.