"We cook sausage, we sell sausage, people buy sausage and it supports the volunteers. That's how we buy our trucks, our turnout gear."
Elberta Volunteer Fire Chief William Vanbrimmer said that to WKRG in late August, as the town and its fire department took the German Sausage Festival back from the nonprofit that had been organizing it. Three weeks before the gates open, his quote is the clearest guide to what this year will look like. The fall festival is on Saturday, October 31, 2026, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Elberta Town Park. The last Saturday in October falls on Halloween this year. It is also the first festival the town has run under the new arrangement.
The parts of the day the fire department controls directly are settled: the sausage, the beer, the cause. Almost everything else is being rebuilt from scratch, and on a short timeline.
How the handover happened
The Elberta Volunteer Fire Department ran the festival for generations, and for most of that time it operated separately from the town. In August 2025 it became a municipal department under town control. The chief told WKRG the move opened the door to new fire stations and extra grants, and eventually to the town hiring someone. Once the department was public, though, fundraising as a municipal entity became the problem. In March, WKRG reported that with at least one paid staff member the department qualified for public safety grants but could not fundraise as a municipal entity.
A new nonprofit, Elberta Community Partners, took on the festival to solve that. Board Chairman Seth Fuller said at the time that the festival board and the ECP board were the same people. Then, as OBA reported on August 26, the town told ECP it preferred to have town employees and members of the municipal fire department coordinate and operate the festival, starting this October. ECP agreed to step aside rather than contest it. "We also feel that it is in nobody's best interest to fight," Fuller said.
The detail that shapes October 31 comes a few paragraphs later in the OBA report. Organizers said they had not met the deadlines to sign agreements with suppliers, entertainment providers and others for the fall festival. That leaves the town with what ECP called a clean slate and the freedom to make its own decisions.
What a clean slate means, item by item
As of early October, here is where each piece of festival weekend stands, based on public reporting and the festival's own listings.
| Piece of the weekend | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| Date and hours | Saturday, Oct. 31, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Admission | Free |
| Sausage | Fire chief's stated plan is 6,500 pounds, "the same sausage" |
| Beer | Reported by WKRG as "the same beer" |
| Proceeds | Going to the volunteer fire department |
| Arts-and-crafts vendors | Verbal agreement for the town to honor accepted applications |
| Food vendors | Terms still unsettled as of late August |
| Sponsors | All refunded; any new town sponsorship program unannounced |
| Live music | No performers named |
| Friday "Blocktoberfest" | Planned under ECP; not confirmed since the handover |
The top half of that table holds up because it doesn't depend on any new contract. "Whether it's the fire department or Elberta Community Partners, we're cooking 6,500 pounds of sausage. We're going to be there. I haven't missed one since I was a little kid," Vanbrimmer told WKRG. Officials said all the money raised would keep going straight to the volunteer fire department.
The bottom half is what the clean slate left open. ECP's festival page credits Farm Fresh Meats of Robertsdale with making the sausage for more than 40 years and mentions a bounce-house area for kids. Both details describe the festival ECP ran. Neither has been confirmed for the town-run event. When the chief says "the same sausage," he means continuity. A signed supplier agreement has not been made public.
The festival app is in a similar spot. ECP said it intends to hand control of the new app and its information to the town once a written agreement is reached. Until that happens, beer prices or schedule times shown in the app reflect ECP's planning, not the town's. When it was last checked, the app's announcements page had no updates.
Friday night is the open question
Blocktoberfest was the biggest new idea from the ECP era. In March, Fuller described it as a block-party-style event the night before October's festival. The vendor application on Eventeny spells out the plan: Friday, October 30, from 6 to 11 p.m., with live music and beer sales. Food vendors could take part if they chose, but arts-and-crafts vendors would not operate and festival sausage would not be sold.
That plan belonged to the organization that has since stepped aside, and entertainment was one of the agreements ECP said it never finalized. No town or fire department announcement since late August has confirmed a Friday event. If the town holds one, it will be the town's own event, not the inherited version.
Saturday on Pine Street
Most listings put the festival at 24950 Pine Street, at Elberta Town Park. At least one events calendar uses 13052 Main Street for the same park. Pine Street is the address to put in a map app.
The most recent vendor layout puts food vendors along the north side of Pine Street and keeps Pine Street itself as the main walkway, with nothing blocking it. When it was last reviewed, the festival's interactive map showed 138 assigned booths and no empty ones, including nine food vendors and 18 nonprofits. The town has agreed to honor arts-and-crafts applications, so the craft side of that map has the best chance of looking the same on the day. The food row depends on how the vendor terms are resolved.
Parking hasn't changed, and the rule is strict. The festival's parking page says there is no designated parking for attendees or vendors. Visitors are directed to ordinary public right-of-way parking and told not to park on roadways, on private property or across driveways. No shuttle has been announced. For anyone living within walking distance of Town Park, that guidance decides the day. The festival brings its crowd onto neighborhood shoulders and leaves driveways to the people who live there.
The fire department's own site has estimated about 30,000 attendees and 7,000 pounds of sausage per festival. Those are long-running averages, not 2026 figures. Next to them, the chief's 6,500 pounds is a sizable cook but not a record.
From 5 p.m. at Town Park to 6 p.m. on Main Street
The festival closes at 5 p.m. An hour later, Elberta Church starts its annual Trunk-or-Treat at 12891 Main St., which runs from 6 to 8 p.m. with candy, games and free food. The town and the festival haven't announced a costume contest, a set trick-or-treat time or any other Halloween program for the day. As things stand, Elberta's Halloween is the festival in the daytime and the church's Trunk-or-Treat after dark, about an hour apart.
That gap is short. Festival booths will be breaking down along Pine Street while families head to Main Street, and the no-roadway, no-driveway parking rule will likely still matter as the two crowds overlap. The Trunk-or-Treat listing does not say whether it expects festival foot traffic, and the festival hasn't mentioned the church event.
Where updates will come from
The festival's August transition story gave one direct contact: questions go to [email protected]. Because that address is on the fire department's domain, updates about a Friday event, food vendors or a music lineup will most likely come from the department and the Town of Elberta. ECP's website is unlikely to be the source this time. Fuller praised Chief Vanbrimmer and Deputy Chief Staimpel when the handover was announced, and ECP said it would work with town officials to make the transfer orderly.
The most recent fall festival was October 25, 2025, also at Town Park and also free. The things that stay the same from year to year are the ones the department controls: the sausage on the grill, the volunteers working it, and the money going to new trucks and turnout gear.
Owning near Town Park means the festival comes to your doorstep twice a year, and the team at Top Tier Team knows the streets around Pine and Main as well as the festival crowd does. If Halloween weekend has you wondering what your Elberta home is worth, start with a free home valuation. We'll give you a clear number, explain how we got it, and treat you like family.
