Elberta's Sausage Festival Goes Back to the Firefighters, and This Year It Lands on Halloween

"It started out as a fundraiser for the fire department. That's all it's ever been. That's all it's ever going to be." Elberta Volunteer Fire Chief William Vanbrimmer said that to WKRG in late August, when the station reported that the Town of Elberta and its volunteer fire department would take the German Sausage Festival back over for October.

This year's fall festival is Saturday, October 31: Halloween, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., free admission at Town Park. The sausage and the beer will be the same as always. The organization behind them has changed, and so has the town around Town Park. For most of the festival's history, Elberta's biggest day ended at 5 p.m. That's no longer true downtown.

How the Festival Left the Fire Department and Came Back

The Encyclopedia of Alabama traces the festival to 1978, when it began as a fundraiser for the volunteer fire department. It celebrates the local sausage developed by resident Alfred Stucki, and it runs on the last weekend of March and the last weekend of October. That rhythm held for decades. The last two years are what's new:

1. For generations, the volunteer fire department ran the festival as an organization separate from the town.
2. A little over a year before August 2026, the department became part of the Town of Elberta. Vanbrimmer told WKRG the move "gave us an avenue for new fire stations, for extra grants, and eventually for the town to hire somebody."
3. October 2025 and March 2026: because of that change, a local nonprofit called Elberta Community Partners ran the two festivals. Vanbrimmer said the group was created to benefit the fire department, many volunteer firefighters worked for it, and the department was "extremely thankful for this partnership."
4. October 2026: the town and the fire department are reported to be taking the festival back over.

So the merger that briefly moved the festival to a nonprofit also made it possible for the festival to come home. The volunteers who cook the sausage now sit inside a town government that can pursue grants and build stations, and the festival still pays for the department's equipment. "We cook sausage, we sell sausage, people buy sausage and it supports the volunteers," Vanbrimmer said. "That's how we buy our trucks, our turnout gear."

What Changes on October 31, and What Doesn't

From the crowd, probably very little. Officials told WKRG that festivalgoers shouldn't expect much to change: "The same sausage will be cooked, the same beer will be sold, and the same traditions will be celebrated." The volume is set too. "Whether it's the fire department or Elberta Community Partners, we're cooking 6,500 pounds of sausage," Vanbrimmer said, and he added that he hasn't missed a festival since he was a little kid.

The money is the clearest difference. WKRG reported that all proceeds from the October festival will go directly to the volunteer fire department. A separate listing for the same October 31 festival says proceeds benefit the department and other local nonprofits. The online paperwork hasn't fully caught up either. As of early October, the fall festival's Eventeny page still says "Hosted by Elberta Community Partners." If you're signing up to volunteer or applying for a booth, check with the town to be sure your application reaches the right organizer.

The volunteer listing for the fall festival describes shifts "wrapping and assisting in serving sausage sandwiches." The festival's event listing advertises more than 150 arts-and-crafts vendors, along with food and live music.

The Weekend Starts Friday Night

Most coverage stops at the Saturday hours, but town paperwork shows a longer weekend. A Town of Elberta council agenda from February 2026 included a motion for an ABC license covering a "KICK OFF EVENT (5-9pm)" on Friday, October 30, followed by "FESTIVAL DAYS" on October 31 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The proposed license covered beer, wine and premixed cocktails. That agenda item was a licensing motion, so confirm the Friday kickoff with the town as the date gets closer.

The festival also isn't the only October event in town. The Baldwin County Heritage Museum at 25521 U.S. 98 is running its "Pirates of the Cursed Forest" haunted trail. It opened October 2, has two weekends left, and starts at 5 p.m.

The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., on the state tourism listing. Its five-acre complex includes St. Mark's Lutheran Church, built in 1925. The Elberta Public Library has a newer history stop too. In late May the library finished and unveiled a Foundation Hall display on the town's past, and Gulf Coast Media reported that librarian June Taylor was putting together a notebook of more stories and articles. Either one gives useful background on a festival built around one resident's sausage recipe.

Five O'Clock Used to Be the End of It

The festival closes at 5 p.m. For most of its run, downtown had few places to go after that. Erin Equihua, who opened Elberta Pizza with her husband about a year and a half before WKRG profiled downtown in March 2026, explained why: "There was a need here for something in the evening." Elberta Pizza serves lunch and dinner.

Three blocks away is State Street Coffee & Ice Cream, which Candice Bass and her family built out of a former gas station. It serves specialty coffee and Hershey's ice cream, and Bass calls it "a place to gather." The South Baldwin Chamber lists it at 24893 State Street.

The newest of the three is Oakley's Wine Bar & Bistro at 25022 State Street, which opened in fall 2025. Gulf Coast Media described a full bar, a patio, locally sourced seafood, steaks, pastas and a seasonal menu. WKRG found it "down a path in the middle of downtown and through a courtyard." Chef Ashley Cabana said of the space, "I couldn't believe this was here, honestly."

None of these businesses has announced special hours for festival day, so check with each one before you plan around them. Still, this will be the first festival the town and its fire department run together, and Oakley's, State Street Coffee & Ice Cream and Elberta Pizza are all open downtown. Equihua put it this way: "We really do have a lot more here than just a drive-through to Pensacola."

Parking, Addresses and the Details Still in Motion

The fall listings haven't covered every logistical detail yet. Fall-specific parking instructions haven't been posted. The most recent guidance comes from the March 2026 festival page: there was no central parking, parking in rights-of-way outside the event area was subject to local laws, St. Mark's Lutheran Church and some private yards offered paid parking, and accessible parking was by the Police Department and Municipal Complex. That's how the spring festival worked. The October plan may differ.

Different listings give different street addresses for Town Park, so the simplest direction is downtown Elberta, where the park sits with its gazebo and children's playscape. The town is also slated for $1.6 million in 2026 GoMESA funding for "Public Park Improvements," WKRG reported in August. The scope and schedule haven't been published.

What's settled is the part that has held since 1978: 6,500 pounds of sausage, cooked by volunteers, with the proceeds going to the trucks and turnout gear that answer Elberta's calls.

At Andrea Shilston & Eva Wilmott, we follow how towns like Elberta change on the ground: who runs the traditions, which storefronts are new, and how a five-acre museum and a three-block downtown fit around them. If you'd like to talk through what this changing downtown means for your own plans, we're glad to start that conversation. Schedule a Private Consultation.