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When it comes to beer
festivals, there’s no event more famous in the world than Munich’s Oktoberfest.
Each year, millions of visitors descend on the city in the last days of summer
to take part in this event, making it the biggest event in Munich’s yearly
calendar of events.
First, a few basic facts about the Oktoberfest: this long-running beer festival
was first held in October of 1810 in honor of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s
marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Over the years, the
festival has been moved forward to the last weeks of September, which usually
offers much better weather, and now Oktoberfest takes place over the 16 days
leading up to, and including, the first Sunday in October (though inevitably,
this prompts quips about the festival being renamed ‘Septemberfest’). The
Oktoberfest is always held at the Theresenwiese, or Field of Theresa in English,
though for this event the field will be so covered with colossal white tents,
you’d see no sign of a blade of grass anyway.
So much for the facts, now on to the main topic: beer. The first thing you will
see on arriving at the festival ground are the tents – all 14 of them, all
neatly lined up in a row. Each year, well over six million people visit the
tents during the course of the festival, so if you’re looking to get a good seat
in one of the tents, it pays to either reserve seats or come early before the
lines start – some eager festival-goers will arrive as early as 9am in order to
get a good spot! The festival doesn’t officially begin until 12 ‘o clock midday,
after the current Mayor of Munich officially opens the festival by broaching the
first keg of beer. To watch the official start of the festival, head to the
Schottenhamel tent, which is traditionally where the opening ceremony is held;
besides, none of the other tents are allowed to serve any beer until the Mayor
has cried out "O'zapft is!" (Bavarian: "It’s tapped!") in that first tent
anyway.
Once the festival is underway, it’s a world of fun just wandering through the
different tents, sampling the beers and delicacies. Each tent will traditionally
offer beer from one Munich brewery: for example, the Winzerer Fähndl tent offers
Paulaner beer, while Schützen-Festhalle tent serves up Löwenbräu. For newcomers
to the Oktoberfest (or to German beer in general), it helps to have a map of the
tents; or you can try the shotgun approach and just happily nip into each tent
for a sampling!
 Each
tent also traditionally has its own unique attractions: the Ochsenbraterei tent
offers an amazing variety of ox dishes while the Fischer Vroni offers a similar
spread in fish; the Weinzelt offers wine for those looking for a change of
taste; the Hippodrom and Bräurosl tents are as known for the music played in
them as for their beer, the Löwenbräu-Festhalle is known for the massive lion at
the tent entrance and the Armbrustschützenzelt tent’s name, translated to
English, means "Crossbow Shooters Tent", which really says all you need to know
about it!
Each tent can literally hold thousands of merry festival goers, all seated
around wooden tables, with hundreds more tables scattered outside the tent.
Barmaids in cute costumes hurry back and forth with huge 1 litre mugs of beer
and platters of hearty Bavarian fare, brass bands play traditional Oktoberfest
favourites and there’s lots of singing, shouting, laughing and general enjoyment
going on.
For an event which basically involves drinking colossal amounts of beer, the
atmosphere can be surprisingly comradely. One of the most endearing sights of
the Oktoberfest is seeing entire crowds of total strangers lofting huge mugs
into the air, swaying from side to side and singing happily along with the band.
This is especially endearing when, on looking around, you realize at least a
quarter of the crowd are foreign visitors, probably don’t speak a word of German
and are just singing whatever lyrics comes into their heads!
The festival isn’t just adults-only– entire families will turn out in droves to
enjoy the fest, as there are also carnival games to play, rides to try and
souvenir booths to peruse! There’s also a two parades held over the course of
the festival: the Oktoberfest Costume and Riflemen’s Parade and the Parade of
Oktoberfest Landlords and Breweries, which just add to the grandeur, colour and
spectacle of the whole event.
Almost all the tents have to close down by 11pm at night. The exceptions are the
Käfers Wiesen Schänke and Weinzelt tents, which stop serving at 1am;
predictably, these tents get very crowded later in the night! With over 2 weeks
of beer festival to go however, there’s definitely no need to rush; there’s
plenty of time to enjoy a tall mug of great German beer in the last sunny days
of September sunshine.
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