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Oktoberfest

Munich, Germany 

Although it’s been a few years since I was at the Oktoberfest, it’s is definitely one of my fondest memories of my stay in Germany. The Oktoberfest in Munich is the granddaddy of all beer fests. The fest, or as the Germans call it the Wiesn (short for Theresienwiese which means festival grounds), starts in mid September and concludes on the first Sunday in October.

Even though there is much to see and do at the Wiesn, like carnival rides and games, the biggest attraction is the big beer tents. Even though I didn’t hit all the tents, I visited most of the big ones and the atmosphere in every beer tent was festive with a good time had by all. The German bands keep the crowd’s upbeat and drinking a lot of beer.

The beer as you might of expected was superb; I didn’t have a bad beer in any of the tents. All of the tents I visited served huge litter mugs. The food was also excellent with many tents offering traditional German fair like roasted chicken, wiener schnitzel, knuckle of pork, suckling pig, huge pretzels and of course bratwurst.

The first tent we visited was the Hacker tent. The people at the table we visited treated us like family. The mood got so festive that people were standing arm and arm while swaying to the music. Every time the bandleader would raise his litter of beer and shouted prosit, the crowd would take a huge swig of beer. To give you an idea of the immensity of the beer tents, I’ve listed all 14 of the big tents with seating capacity and the brewery that serves the tents.

Armbrustschutzenzelt
Inside Seating: 5,830
Outside Seating: 1,600
Brewery: Paulaner

Augustiner-Festhalle
Inside Seating: 6,000
Outside Seating: 2,500
Brewery: Augustiner-Brau-
  Wagner

Braurost
Inside Seating: 6,200
Outside Seating: 2,200
Brewery: Hacker-Pschorr

Fischer-Vroni
Inside Seating: 2,695
Outside Seating: 700
Brewery: Augustiner

Hacker-Festzelt
Inside Seating: 9,300
Brewery: Hacker-Pschorr

Hippodrom
Inside Seating: 3,200
Outside Seating 1,000
Brewery: Spaten-Franziskaner-          Brau

Hofbrau-Festzelt
Inside Seating: 6,890
Outside Seating 3.022
Brewery: Hofbrau
Kafers-Wiesn-Schanke
Inside Seating: 1,000
Outside Seating 1,900
Brewery: Paulaner

Lowenbrau-Festhalle
Inside Seating: 5,700
Outside Seating 2,800
Brewery: Lowenbrau

Ochsenbraterei
Inside Seating: 5,900
Outside Seating 1,500
Brewery: Spaten

Schottenhamel
Inside Seating: 6,000
Outside Seating 4,000
Brewery: Spaten-Franziskaner
Brau

Schutzen-Festzelt
Inside Seating: 5,440
Brewery: Lowenbrau

Weinzelt
Inside Seating: 1,300
Outside Seating 600
Brewery: Paulaner

Winzerer-Fahndl
Inside Seating: 8,450
Outside Seating 2,450
Brewery: Paulaner


Beer Tents
Oktoberfest History

The Oktoberfest dates back to 1810 in celebration of Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese. In fact the festival known as the Theresienwiese to the Germans, or Wiesn for short, was named after the Princess. The actual date of the beginning is somewhat disputed since the marriage was on October 12 and the date for the festivities was October 17.

Since 1810 the Oktoberfest has been cancelled a total of 24 times, mainly due to war and disease outbreaks. Throughout nearly 200 years, the Oktoberfest has gone through quite a few changes. The more modern fest goes back to 1950 with the tapping of the first keg by the mayor of Munich where he proudly cries out “O’zapft is (it’s tapped), and the official start of the Oktoberfest commences.

Since that humble beginning, the Oktoberfest has become the worlds largest festival with over six million visitors per year with approximately 6.9 million liters of beer poured.