History
Oktoberfest, annual festival in Munich, Germany, held over a two-week period (with three adjacent weekends), and ending on the first Sunday in October. That’s why most of the Oktoberfest is happening in September. The weather in October is sometimes a hit and miss, that’s why the organizers moved it to earlier times.
The festival originated on October 12, 1810, in celebration of the royal marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria, who later became King Louis I, to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
The locals call it “Wiesn”, because it happens at the Theresienwiese, meaning “Theresa’s lawn“, a huge fairground area in the middle of Munich.
The Beer
The beer is specially brewed for Oktoberfest and extra strong! 5.9%. It is slowly fermented throughout the summer months to allow the beer to pick up the rich malt flavors. Only beer brewed in Munich is allowed at the Oktoberfest!
1.8 MILLION GALLONS OF BEER (7 million liters = 7 million mass) are consumed at the Oktoberfest each year!
PROST
The Food
But the beer is not the only specialty at Oktoberfest. The food is awesome too! For example grilled oxen. In 16 days, they grill ~150 oxen, roughly 10 per day. Along with 500,000 chickens, 15,000 ducks, half a million sausages, 52,000 kg of fish, etc. Walking around the fairgrounds makes you hungry; the smell of every booth, every tent is just like heaven!
Sausages and sweet mustard have to be eaten before 12pm!
Sustainability
If the Oktoberfest would be in the US, you’d end up with a mountain of waste, a garbage pile as tall as the Zugspitze! But here in Munich, they are more environmental conscious: they use porcelain plates and “real” silverware! No paper plates or plastic cutlery! The silverware, roughly 1 million knives, forks and spoons DAILY are brought to Passau, a town 200 km East of Munich on the border of Austria and the Check Republic, where they are washed, dried and wrapped in a napkin and shipped back to Munich. 4 truck full loads of silverware per day. The porcelain plates and the glass beer mugs are cleaned on site. One of those special beer mug dishwashers can clean 2800 mugs an hour with a cold rinse at the end, so they can be filled with the liquid gold right after the cleaning process.
People
About 6 million people visit the Wiesn each year! It gets very crowded at night and on weekends. No baby strollers are allowed the fairgrounds at those times, otherwise the Wiesn is very kid friendly. In the morning there are many school classes to be seen, lots of rides especially for the little ones.
Transportation
For Americans, the most unusual fact might be that there is not public parking at the fairgrounds. None! Zero!!! So you take public transportation, which is excellent, easy to use and self explanatory. Take the underground lines U3, U4, U5 or U6. Or S1,2,3,4,6,7,8. Or tram 18,19. Or bus 58, 62, 53, 143. Or a taxi. Or a bike. etc. And just follow the crowds, go where everybody else is going. Or just ask anybody. Or, if you are a shy person, follow the sign “Zur Festwiese” (to the fairground)
PROST ! Reading parts 1 & 2 refreshes my memories of being at Octoberfest in the 1980’s. Getting there the public transport was free along with no entrance fee. Seeing the Ferris wheel and other rides was a display of fine German engineering on a grand scale. Walking the main promenade to the beer tents was exhilarating.
Ah, the beer tents. They were about the size of an American football field with a tent covering. The beers were huge along with the bosom’s they rested on when being delivered. Music and fun everywhere. Reservations not required. People made room for us to seat and join the good times. One particular song was sung in every tent. I think it translated to “Life is Life” and was incredibly popular. I think there were five or six tents at the time however I never got past two beers spread over several hours.
That also means my memories could be a little hazy.
PROST ! Reading parts 1 & 2 refreshes my memories of being at Octoberfest in the 1980’s. Getting there the public transport was free along with no entrance fee. Seeing the Ferris wheel and other rides was a display of fine German engineering on a grand scale. Walking the main promenade to the beer tents was exhilarating.
Ah, the beer tents. They were about the size of an American football field with a tent covering. The beers were huge along with the bosom’s they rested on when being delivered. Music and fun everywhere. Reservations not required. People made room for us to seat and join the good times. One particular song was sung in every tent. I think it translated to “Life is Life” and was incredibly popular. I think there were five or six tents at the time however I never got past two beers spread over several hours.
That also means my memories could be a little hazy.