Helen on parade: October is the peak of Helen, Georgia's crucial tourist season

photo Buildings are painted to resemble an alpine German town in the city of Helen, Ga.

HELEN, Ga.Population: Approximately 650Location: Northeast Georgia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge MountainsClaim to Fame: "Alpine Helen" built in the style of small European villages in the AlpsOKTOBERFESTWhat: Month-and-a-half-long celebration of Alpine HelenWhen: September 18 - November 2Where: Downtown Helen, Georgia

Hallo, from a mountain nook tucked away in northeast Georgia that's just about as close to Old Europe as you'll find this side of the Atlantic.

Especially this time of year.

Starting mid-September every year, Helen turns into a tourism boomtown. The village -- as it's called by locals -- with its population of roughly 650, rolls out the red teppich to over 2 million visitors who come from every corner of the globe to see the turning fall leaves and taste German eats, drink German beer.

Helen has its own chamber of commerce and owns its utilities.

"We are pretty much self-sufficient," says Mayor Judy Holloway.

The town has its own police and fire departments, its own planning and zoning personnel. All buildings in Helen, even those occupied by national franchises, are made to replicate the style of Alpine village. In 1969, the style became the law of the land.

Helen was just another tiny mountain town back then. And three local businessmen wanted to change that. They took sketches from John Kollock, a nearby artist who had spent time in Bavarian mountain villages while serving in the Army. Kollock took photos of Helen's dreary concrete-block streetscape and sketched out the same street in the style of Alpine villages he'd seen.

His sketches became the guiding vision for what Helen would become: a little European wonderland an hour-and-a-half outside Atlanta, two-and-a-half hours outside Chattanooga and Asheville, N.C. and just under two hours from Greeneville, S.C.

And this is the prime time around here. Helen goes on parade every October, pulling out all the stops, putting out all the bells and whistles every day, all month.

The German bands come out sporting their brassy tubas and tell-tale lederhosen get-up.

Traffic keeps most locals from even trying to drive. Most just take to walking when Oktoberfest is going on. They understand the give-and-take relationship around here.

"Almost all of Helen's revenue is tourism-based," says Holloway. "That's when the businesses make their money."

She says Oktoberfest (which formally runs September 18 through November 2) is the Alpine Helen Chamber of Commerce's "time to shine."

And there's no time to rest when it ends. Just around the corner is the nearly month-long Festival of Trees with the Christkindlmrkt wedged in there Thanksgiving weekend.

It can get a little crazy.

But it's worth it, says Donna Guajardo.

She's a floor manager at the Hansel & Gretel Candy Kitchen, which like the majority of Helen, lives and dies by the tourism season.

"You've got eight months out of the year that you really make your money," she says.

The busy season begins around Memorial Day and ends just after New Year's.

"Oktoberfest is a welcome event to the community," she says.

Guajardo often parks off-site at the Hansel & Gretel candy factory, a smaller shop away from the tourist strip, and walks to work during Oktoberfest to avoid stand-still traffic.

The brittle treats fly off the shelf. So do the Chattahoochee Snappers (think Hershey's Turtles).

So candy manufacturing is ramped up when Oktoberfest rolls around, even weeks before it arrives. At the peak season, Guajardo says the folks at Hansel & Gretel put in 10- to 12-hour days to meet buyer demand.

Guajardo is actually from Florida. As a kid, her uncle took her along to Helen and other parts of north Georgia for vacation. She never imagined she'd wind up living here and being part of millions of others' vacations.

"I would have probably laughed," she says, if someone had said to her it would happen.

Nevertheless, in 2005 she made the transition, and is loving it.

She says the Hansel & Gretel Candy Kitchen's 25 employees are just "one big, happy family." Their owner, David Jones (author of "Candy Making for Dummies") has lived and made candy in Helen for 40 years. He's still involved, too, overseeing candy making at the shop.

He probably could have packed up shop and gone anywhere with his recipes. But he hasn't. He remains part of the Helen experiment, staying and hosting 2 million a year in the Appalachian village.

"That should tell you something," Guajardo says.

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