Houstonfest

Founded in 1980, Houstonfest is an annual competition for Houston-area students in grades 8 through 12 who are learning German.  It offers 44 contests for students in German I, II, III, IV, and V, including written and oral tests, declamation, drama, art, and music.  There are also categories for "advantaged speakers."  Registration is accepted only from German teachers registering their participating students as a group; we do not accept registration from individual students.  For the 2020 contest we had 562 students registered from 21 schools.  For this year's scaled-down contest, we had 166 students from 12 schools.  Teachers and others from the local German-speaking community serve as judges.  If you are interested in serving as a judge, contact director Rustin Buck by email and he'll add you to his email list.

Entrants placing in the top five in each event at Houstonfest, traditionally held on the first Saturday of February (which was February 6 in 2021), advance to the Texas State German Contest, traditionally held on the last Saturday of February (which was February 27 in 2021).  At State, Houstonfest's winners compete against the winners of the other two Texas regional German competitions, Winterfest for the Dallas and North Texas area and Sprachfest for the Central and South Texas area.

Normally, Houstonfest is held at Heights High School in Houston and State at Texas State University in San Marcos.  However, due to the uncertainties and risks created by COVID-19, all three regional contests and the State contest were conducted remotely and with fewer events in 2021.  Some events were conducted live (but online) on contest day, and for the other events, contestants submitted their entries digitally by contest day.  Judging was done remotely over several days, and the results were announced online about a week later.

Brochure about Texas German contest system

(does not reflect the temporary changes for 2021)

Incentives for schools new to Houstonfest

Back again in 2021:  Show your love for the Texas German contest system by producing a promotional video and entering our contest.  You could win $250!  Click here for the contest guidelines.

In "normal" years, after competition is over and while everyone is waiting for the awards to be tabulated, we have entertainment by the band Das ist lustig and members of the folk dance group Keine Kunst.  The Tomball German Festival also traditionally invites winning Chorus, Folk Dance, and Polka Band groups as well as Vocal Soloists to perform at their festival each year and makes donations to the German Clubs of all schools that perform.  As 2021 will not be a normal year, unfortunately none of that will happen this year.