Oktoberfest season on Long Island opens in earnest next Saturday, September 19, and it opens three times at once. A village main street in Nassau shuts down for it, and two Oceanside breweries a five minute drive apart tap their festival beers the same afternoon. From there the calendar rolls almost unbroken into mid October, when the wood paneled halls of Franklin Square close out the season the way they have for generations. Here is where the steins actually get raised this fall, and what makes each stop worth the drive.

September 19: one Saturday, three parties

The biggest of the three is in Farmingdale, where the village's Music on Main series turns its final street festival of the year into an Oktoberfest. Main Street closes to traffic between Prospect Street and South Front Street from noon to 5 p.m., and the restaurants along the strip move their tables into the road. Admission is free, there is live music and a kids' side, and the format that made Music on Main a summer fixture, dine outside, wander, repeat, gets a German accent for one afternoon. For anyone who has watched Farmingdale's Main Street become one of the better restaurant rows in Nassau, this is the easiest possible way to graze the whole thing at once.

Down in Oceanside, Barrier Brewing holds its fifth annual Oktoberfest at the brewery on New Street, also from noon to 5 p.m. Barrier takes its German styles seriously the rest of the year, so the festival is less a costume party than a beer release with a costume party attached. Lederhosen and dirndls are encouraged, and branded steins will be on sale for anyone who wants their pour to feel official.

A few blocks away on Hampton Road, South Shore Craft Brewery runs Shoretoberfest from 1 to 6 p.m. The taproom releases its annual Shoretoberfest Marzen for the occasion, sells a limited edition 16 ounce glass mug, and stages a lederhosen and dirndl contest, with German style food for purchase from River Mill Tavern and Tables of Lynbrook. Two brewery Oktoberfests in one town on one afternoon is either a scheduling accident or the best bar crawl of the season, depending on how you choose to read it.

September 20: the real one warms up

Any conversation about German celebrations on Long Island ends at the same address: Plattduetsche Park on Hempstead Turnpike in Franklin Square, the German American park restaurant that has anchored the Island's German community for more than a century. Its season opener is Ompahfest, Sunday, September 20, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with admission at 11 dollars. This is the club's biggest heritage day of the year, with brass bands brought over from Germany, traditional dancing, imported goods, vendors and games, and it functions as the official kickoff to the Oktoberfest weeks that follow. If you only make one stop on this list, and you want the version with actual German grandmothers in attendance, this is the one.

September 24: the North Fork settles in for two weeks

Out east, Jamesport Farm Brewery opens its Oktoberfest on Thursday, September 24, and runs the celebration into the first week of October rather than burning it all in one afternoon. The timing is the draw here. The brewery sits in the middle of North Fork farm country just as harvest season hits full stride, so an afternoon of festival beer folds neatly into apple picking and farm stand runs. A weekday opening also means the crowds stay thinner than anything on the western half of this list.

September 26: the family one

Lynbrook's village run Oktoberfest returns to Greis Park on Saturday, September 26. This is the one built for residents rather than beer tourists: bands, brats and beer for the adults, rides, games and a dedicated kids' window for everyone else, all inside a village park. The village posts details at lynbrookvillage.net, and it is the natural pick for anyone who wants the fall festival experience without a taproom in it.

October: Franklin Square finishes the job

Plattduetsche's Oktoberfest proper spreads across two weekends in October, and the club treats each night as its own event. Friday, October 2 brings live German music from Johnny Koenig, and Saturday, October 3 pairs the band die Spitzbuam with dancing demonstrations from the Original Enzian Schuhplattler dancers, both nights running 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. with an 8 dollar cover. Die Spitzbuam return on Saturday, October 10, and Sunday, October 11 shifts to a 1 to 5 p.m. afternoon with the house brass band, Foehrer Musik Freunde. The season closes Wednesday, October 14 with an accordion night in the club's Hive room, complete with a mug holding contest.

The through line on that October calendar is that none of it is a theme night invented for marketing. The bands, the dancers and the Bavarian menu are what the club does all year, turned up for the season the whole tradition is named for.

How to pick

The honest answer is by geography and temperament. The street fair crowd gets Farmingdale on the 19th. Beer people get Oceanside the same day and the North Fork the week after. Families get Lynbrook on the 26th. And anyone who wants Oktoberfest as an institution rather than an event gets Franklin Square, any night in early October, where the brass section has been at this a lot longer than the craft breweries have. Prost either way.