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Downtown Oktoberfest Festival Offers Music, Food And, Oh Yes, Ferris Wheel Rides

Nope, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you.

There is, in fact, a 100-foot tall Ferris wheel towering over Metropolitan Park.

Florida Oktoberfest & Music Festival organizer Phil Vogelsang says it’s just the thing for a three day music festival on the banks of the St. Johns.

“You can’t get a better view than going 100-feet up right on the river unless you go into a skyscraper," Vogelsang said. "But this at least gives you the opportunity to take pictures and videos and do whatever you want with your cell phone--which is pretty neat.”

To make sure people can relax and have fun at the festival, they’ve put security measures in place similar to those at EverBank Field, including bag checks, and metal detectors, according to Vogelsang.

“Obviously the NFL has put a lot of time and effort into their security protocol so we thought we’d mimic that just so you’re not only going to be safe over there, you’re going to feel safe coming through the gates and that was what we wanted to make sure everybody felt.”

Oktoberfest got underway Friday afternoon and runs through Sunday night. Here's a look at the lineup:

Friday ( 5pm- 11pm):

Absolute Journey - Journey Tribute Band

Hotel California - The Eagles Tribute Band

Mama Blue

+ More

Saturday (Noon-11pm):

Citizen Cope

Neon Trees

Magic!

The Expendables

Cloud 9 Vibes

+ More

Sunday presented by WQIK (Noon - 10pm):

Dustin Lynch

Granger Smith

David Nail

Craig Campbell

Ashley McBryde

+ More

For additional information visit the Florida Oktoberfest & Musical Festival website.

Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews

Cyd Hoskinson began working at WJCT on Valentine’s Day 2011.