Club manager Paul Berger said this was almost certainly the event's final year at Exhibition Park, with the Narrabundah dog track or the Queanbeyan showgrounds two possibilities for the future, along with reducing the scale and holding it at the club headquarters where it began more than 50 years ago.

The club was being charged $19,800 for the weekend's hire of Exhibition Park last year, compared with $6000 in 2011. While the government had offered to keep that price for three years, it was "just too much", he said.

"There's no business in Canberra that increases their prices like that. Government departments under Labor have become revenue-making cost centres."

With extra police being sent this year, police fees had increased from $4000 last year to $12,600. Despite having a liquor licence fee for its club, it had to pay for another licence for the festival, costing $3500 - compared with $135 in 2011. Adding buses and other fees, the total was $41,500.

The celebration of German food, beer and dancing on the weekend of October 28 is the club's biggest fundraising event of the year. It hopes for as many as 5000 visitors on the Saturday, with extra night-time events scheduled this year. Numbers have declined since 2013, with a poor result last year, partly a result of increasing costs and poor weather, to the point the outcome was little better than break even.

Mr Berger said the club had met Gaming Minister Mick Gentleman recently but was told nothing could be done to help this year.

Clubs are a key battleground of the election campaign, with clubs funding the Canberra Community Voters party to stop Labor's move to allow poker machines in the casino.

On the government's wider approach to clubs, Mr Berger said the poker machine trading scheme had not helped the German club because it wasn't a big owner, with just 20 machines, and wasn't buying or selling machines. The recent announcement of a 50 per cent tax break would be "handy" but was not enough.

"What we need is assistance in events like this," he said.

President Kevin Bramboeck said the government was treating the club with contempt. "They don't listen, they don't care," he said.

"We're a small ethnic club. We pump a lot of money back into the community with local suppliers, local media operators, local butchers, local bread makers, hire companies ... That doesn't seem to rate."