Wurstfest is a 10-day salute to sausage that is a 59-year tradition in New Braunfels. Each year hundreds of thousands of festival attendees enjoy all the foods, fun, and beer that Wurstfest has to offer.
Most of the booths in the Marketplatz, connected to the Wursthall, are run by organizations and non-profits that use it as one of their main fundraisers for the year. The Rotary Club of New Braunfels has operated the Kartofflepuffer (fried potato pancake) booth for many years and successfully raised over $100,000 every year to give back as grants to several small non-profits that serve those in need.
Unfortunately in the early morning hours less than a week after Wurstfest closed their gates, a raging fire swept through the Marketplatz destroying the building and all the contents within. Most of the non-profits’ booths were not insured beyond liability for injuries of volunteers during the festival. But a community rallied together, raising tens of thousands of dollars for those affected, and the Wurstfest Association went right to work reassuring the non-profits the Marketplatz would be rebuilt and Wurstfest would do everything possible to get the non-profits back in business for Wurstfest 2020.
The Rotary Club of New Braunfels will be at Wurstfest this coming November, frying up and serving the Kartofflepuffer that everyone loves. We are incredibly grateful to the Wurstfest Association and our New Braunfels community for coming together to help make a new Marketplatz possible.