A lot of resorts are doing Oktoberfest these days, for good reason. It’s a great combination of many elements of skiing’s past and present, heritage and culture.

But the fall is great for more than just wearing lederhosen and drinking beer, so yesterday I shared a few fall events I’d been digging. And while the theme of those events was more around running, I wanted to share another example that I thought was especially clever.

Brighton’s “Not Oktoberfest”.

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I think it’s important to point out that Brighton is still riding the wave of Oktoberfest – this event probably wouldn’t carry the same weight it if was called “Not Fall Fest” or some lesser known event – but they’re doing it in their own way. In this case, their “own way” ditches most elements of Oktoberfest and replaces them with a weekly combination of two, themed elements.

First, food battles between local chefs along themes like:

• Best Brisket in Utah
• Fried Chicken Sandwich Invitational
• Foodie Wars: The Banh Mi Brawl

And, second, a family game / competition including:

• Lasso & Roping Challenge
• Cornhole Tournament
• Ride the Mechanical Bull

There is no right answer for following trends. The resorts that want to jump on the trend and bring a fun version of an existing event to their audience? That’s great. The resorts that don’t want to jump on the trend and do their own thing? That’s great too. Brighton just found a creative place in the middle where they’re creatively riding the wave around the name of a trend but ditching the actual substance of the trend to do their own, unique thing.

Pretty clever if you ask me. Nice work, Brighton team.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.