Officers Received Less Calls During 2022 Oktoberfest in Leavenworth

Chelan County Sheriff’s Office received less dispatch calls to Leavenworth’s Oktoberfest in 2022 compared to previous years.

Chelan County Corporal Monika Haynes said there were less people at the Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, which may have lowered the number of calls they received.

Haynes said the decrease in calls could be because of the cancelled Oktoberfests in 2020 and 2021, and overall confusion on which Oktoberfest was which (one was in Leavenworth and another was in Wenatchee).

In 2019, RiverCom received about 220 calls from Leavenworth in October. This year, they received around 180 calls.

Haynes said although the number of calls did not drastically decrease, they still received less reports of assault and destruction of property this year compared to 2019.

“This was truly a much more subdued version,” Haynes said. “You didn't have the number of people stumbling around completely obliterated, drunk, creating problems, causing issues later in the hotels. It was more pleasant from a law enforcement standpoint.”

Officers only arrested one person for assault during Oktoberfest this year.