Mark your calendars for Oktoberfest, the annual Villa Park festival organized by the Parks and Recreation Department. This year the festival will run Thursday to Sunday, Sept. 11 to 14. Having Oktoberfest on Sunday is new this year so there will be an extra day to enjoy the activities.

As usual Oktoberfest starts off Thursday night with local teen bands playing in a Battle of the Bands contest. Kids can enjoy the carnival rides for a special price of 10 rides for $15. The festival reopens at 5 p.m. Friday and, in addition to the carnival rides, the food and beer tents will be open. Entertainment will be provided by The Runaways and The New Invaders.

Oktoberfest opens at 9 a.m. Saturday with a full schedule of events, including an Arts & Craft Fair, VFW Blood Drive and the Pet Parade/Contest. A special Children’s Area will offer a petting zoo, balloon artist, face painting and lots of games and prizes. Blue Frog Beads will be on hand if you want to create a trinket. From noon to 5 p.m. kids can go on all the rides they want for $20.

Bands again will be playing, and a bags tournament will be at 3 p.m. The highlight of Oktoberfest is always the band that plays Saturday night. This year you can enjoy the talents of Infinity.

On Sunday,  Oktoberfest will be open from noon to 5 p.m. with the same carnival ride special offered Saturday. The Arts & Crafts Fair will be open, and a special performance is scheduled at noon by the winner of the Battle of the Bands contest.

Jenny Casale is the program supervisor who is organizing Oktoberfest.

“This is the ninth year I’ve been involved, and Oktoberfest has really grown,” she said. “We have bigger carnival, the Pet Parade/Contest was added and is very popular. One year we even had someone enter their sheep in the contest. We have more food vendors and a wider variety of food. This year we have a vendor offering Cuban food.

“I anticipate that the Children’s Area and the Arts & Craft Fair will be very popular. Both will have a lot to offer.”

Visitors to Oktoberfest will want to check out a new event this year. The first Villa Park Game of Skate Tournament will take place all four days of the festival.

The game is similar to the basketball game “Horse,” with one competitor doing a trick and the other having to repeat it. Each failed attempt causes the skater to get a letter until the word “skate” is spelled.

The Villa Park Skatepark Committee will host the tournament that concludes with a final competition on Sunday. Each day the skateboarders from the committee will give a free clinic. Also Sunday, the skateboarding team from Affiliate Skateboarding Company will do a demo show and sign autographs for the kids.

Paula Jimenez is the adult leader of the Skatepark Committee and said the kids are thrilled to be included.

“We talked about the idea of participating at Oktoberfest but the rental of mobile skate ramps is very expensive. The idea of doing the Game of Skate was completely from the committee kids. It doesn’t require ramps and is played on a flat surface.

“When the basketball court became available we jumped at the opportunity and started planning the event. We only had six weeks to organize it, but we got it done. The kids are very excited, especially after getting support from Yeah Boardshop and some other big sponsors like Monster Beverage and Skate One Company that sent donations,” said Jimenez.

The competition will be divided in three groups: A, ages 10 and younger; B, ages 11 to 15; and C, ages 16 and older. The first-, second-, and third-place winners of each group will receive medals and will compete in the finals. The winner of each final group gets a trophy and a new skateboard.