Oktoberfest

AVI recently mentioned wanting to visit Swiss-influenced villages. Helen isn't that, but it does attempt a version of Bavaria. 

The town doesn't have any legitimate German roots. Georgia itself does -- even in Colonial days it was taking in Protestant refugees from the ongoing religious wars in what was not yet Germany -- but not Helen. Helen was a timber industry town that was failing by the mid-20th century, so they decided to try to make it into a tourist attraction in the 1960s. At that time there were some WWII vets still around who had fond memories of Germany, so that's how they decided upon the theme -- indeed one of the highlights has long been Hofbrauhaus Restaurant and G.I. Germany Pub. The understanding of Germany is what it is, but the understanding of what a WWII G.I. pub was like was spot on.

Oktoberfest is in full swing. They were singing The Wild Rover translated into German and played on Oompah band instruments at the Festhall. On Main Street they were dancing the Macarena, often in cheap replicas of German traditional dress. It's definitely a spectacle.