by Kirby Lindsay, from 23 September 1999
This column originally appeared in The Seattle Press, published September 23, 1999.
Oktoberfest is coming! Oktoberfest is coming! I hope you’ve heard of it. If not, I know two people who would be thrilled to share details.
Fremont Oktoberfest will be on September 25th & 26th, and promises to be a wild and wonderful festival. For Phil and Neave Megenhardt, ringleaders of all this merriment, this year’s event will hopefully be the easy one. The first year they organized this huge event in eight weeks. The second year, they had eight months to plan but their son was born just three weeks before Oktoberfest. This year must be calmer, right?
I had to ask what could possess two college-educated, conscientious people, like Neave and Phil, to take on this huge task yet again?
I visited them at their ‘North Fremont’ (Greenwood) home, recently. Molyneax, their year old son, was happily enjoying the evening from his perch on Phil’s back while Jet Texas and Zoë, their two large, black dogs begged Neave to come play. In the yard I could hear chickens squabbling.
In 1995, Neave told me, she was helping out at Seattle Tilth. They needed a core volunteer, someone who likes to talk on the phone and ask people to do things. Neave said, “That’s my husband.” Phil came on board and threw himself into making the Seattle Tilth Organic Harvest Fair happen.
Really though, they credit the lessons they learned while traveling in 1996 with their current career. They went to Australia, New Zealand, Seoul, Singapore, Nepal, India, Thailand, Turkey and Ireland. Much of the time they were with SARVAS and the Willing Workers Organization, working on farms and helping out. They met people with few possessions who were happy, real, and had a great deal to teach about life. Phil and Neave slowly realized they no longer wanted to work in the garment industry as they had intended. They wanted to do something more.
On their return, in 1997, Phil went to work at the Fremont Street Fair. He was in charge of getting sponsorships, both corporate and community. “It was like boot camp for event planning,” he says.
Following these experiences, Phil and Neave started Bold Hat Productions, a company in which they can work together to put on events. Married in 1993, the couple welcome any opportunity to work together. “I’d rather be with Neave than anyone else,” Phil told me.
Their first job came maybe a little too quickly. In the fall of 1997, Phil heard that the Fremont Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors was looking for a fundraising event. No one in the Chamber knew what could be done, and no one wanted to do the work involved. In characteristic Fremont fashion, a date had been set eight weeks hence, a name had been selected, but no plan had been made. Phil was excited about the possibilities even though Neave, exhausted from working on a farm all day, told him, “get rid of it.”
He didn’t. He spoke to everyone he could think of, and received a great deal of helpful advice. Neave took care of the details. Oktoberfest was a runaway success.
The second year was much easier. They had eight months to plan the festival, and prepare for the arrival of their first child. If giving birth weren’t enough, Neave also started working for the Fremont Chamber as their new Executive Secretary at that time.
Neave says, “Doing the first Oktoberfest, we realized we want to do more community events that help the community. We are selling fun.” Phil is proud to contribute to a tradition. He says this city has nearly three events every weekend during the summer. “People want to go out on a weekend. They want to get out of the house and meet other people and have a good time.”
This year will see the best Oktoberfest yet, Phil persuasively proclaims. He took a new job, as Special Events Coordinator for the Pike Place Market Foundation, which limits his time but gave him reason to look more to members of the community. “When you bring more people in, there’re more ideas,” Phil explained. One suggestion was construction of Hollywood-type sets to re-create a Bavarian village in the middle of Fremont, in the shadow of the Aurora Bridge. PROLAB, TPN and George Heideman are making this magic happen while Neave sees to the day-to-day preparation.
It is a tremendous undertaking that will bring fun and festivity to Fremont. You won’t want to miss it! Just ask Neave and Phil.