Amid the bad news for Wall Street in recent days, Ocean Beach MainStreet Association (OBMA) says bratwurst, bands and Bavarian beer should bring cheer and better times to Ocean Beach this weekend. The OBMA, working with community organizations, businesses and musicians, will host this year’s Oktoberfest at the foot of Newport Avenue near the beach on Saturday, Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. “We’re hoping it will be full and fun and people can take a break from all the worrisome news out there and come to Ocean Beach,” said Denny Knox, OBMA’s executive director. It rained during last year’s Oktoberfest, but Knox said she is hopeful that inclement weather is not in this weekend’s forecast. If weather permits, hundreds of amateur and seasoned beer and brat connoisseurs will descend on the beer garden at the end of Newport Avenue. Event organizers will ask a donation of $3 per person or $5 for two people at the garden’s entrance. All proceeds go to beautification projects in Ocean Beach, Knox said. Alongside the oompahs of a Bavarian Beer Garden Band throughout the day, beer-stein bearers can also catch the brewing sounds of the Johnny Cash cover band Cash’d Out. Participants can jam to the revolutionary tunes of Vegitation and may well recognize performances by Danielle Lo Presti and the Masses. A full band line up can be found at www.oboktoberfest.com. Those with a thirst for competition can try their hand at the World Famous Sausage Toss contest, which is exactly what it sounds like. Qualifying rounds for tossers start at 10:45 a.m. Preceding the toss will be the O.B. Brat Trot that will course through the neighborhood. The run is hosted by a chapter of the Hash House Harriers, a social club that describes itself as “a drinking club with a running problem,” according to their Web site. Signups for the race begin at 9 a.m. with the race getting under way at 9:30 a.m. Then it’s a day of stein-holding and bratwurst-eating contests in between rounds of music and toasts. And as the evening dawns and the beer in the steins becomes stale, the winners take home their prizes and the wurst losers will lick their brat-bruised wounds. Just outside the beer garden, along Newport Avenue, festival-goers can purchase some nostalgia from the largest antique business district in San Diego as stores display their finest wares. Ken Freeman, owner of the Ocean Beach Antique Mall, said October is typically sluggish for the OB antique market. And with reports of consumer confidence flailing alongside the stock market, Freeman said buyers would be smart to invest in an appreciating, future family heirloom birthed by a memory in Ocean Beach. Freeman, who trades in antique jewelry, isn’t bothered that Oktoberfest might overshadow the twice-yearly antique sale. “We support and we stand beside them and hopefully our event helps them and their events help us,” said Freeman. Craig Gerwig, co-owner of Newport Avenue Antique Center and Coffee House, 4864 Newport Ave., is one of the principle organizers of the antique stores’ sales event. He said the sale helps boost revenues during a typically slow month. The Ocean Beach antique district is known as a place where people can go out antiquing for a day, he said. All types of people come through the beach community, which itself has become a destination within the city for world travelers and locals. “We’re hoping that Oktoberfest is going to bring a lot of people and maybe they’ll be driving by and they’ll stop by,” Gerwig said. “We always have a good time.” Pacific Beach residents can also join the fun as shuttles carry oompah lovers from 710 Beach Club at 710 Garnet Ave., and deliver them to the yearly shindig every half hour. The last ride returns to PB at 8:30 p.m. With hundreds of funseekers expected to converge on Ocean Beach on Saturday, event organizers hope this year’s Oktoberfest will not only help to reinvigorate the local economy but provided a much-needed means of escape, good cheer and comeradery in troubling times.