Oktoberfest Today

The festival that began as a wedding party in 1810 is now a major event with several million visitors, a dozen or more huge tents, and a set of rules and rituals that are surprisingly strict. This chapter describes the Wiesn as it is today: who is allowed to serve beer, what the beer is, what the opening ceremony involves, what people wear and eat, and what a first-time visitor should know. It ends with other German festivals, which are often more local and less crowded, and with the imitations found around the world. It builds on the history in German Beer, Oktoberfest & the Reinheitsgebot 7. Details, prices and figures change from year to year and are flagged where they should be checked.

The Setting

The festival is held on the Theresienwiese, a large open field close to the centre of Munich, and runs for about two and a half weeks from late September to the first weekend of October (check the current rule for the dates). The site is part funfair, with rides and stalls, and part a collection of large beer tents, which are temporary buildings put up every year and taken down afterwards. The visitor count is usually given as several million per year (check the recent figures).

Who May Serve Beer?

Only breweries from Munich may supply the main tents, and there are six: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten (check the list, since brewery groupings and ownership change). The rule is set by the city, which regulates the festival, and is intended to keep the event local (check the legal basis).

The Opening

The festival opens on the first Saturday with a parade of the landlords and brewery wagons, pulled by teams of horses, through Munich to the Wiesn. At noon, in the Schottenhamel tent, the mayor of Munich taps the first barrel with a wooden mallet, and calls out O'zapft is! The number of blows needed is a matter of public interest, and the beer may be served in all the tents only after the first barrel is tapped and a salute is fired (check the details). On the first Sunday, a large costume parade of groups from all over Bavaria and further afield passes through the city (check).

Costume

Many visitors wear traditional Bavarian dress, called Tracht. For men this is usually Lederhosen, leather breeches, with a checked shirt, and for women the Dirndl, a dress with a bodice, blouse and apron. Wearing Tracht is not obligatory, but it is common and fits in at the festival (check).

• The apron bow. A well-known custom says that a bow on the left of a Dirndl apron signals that the wearer is single and on the right that she is taken or married (check, since it is a folk custom with regional variants).
• Quality. Real Tracht is a serious craft and can be expensive. Cheap costumes sold as fancy dress are widely seen, and some locals find them silly (check).
• Reuse. Many Bavarians own Tracht for life and wear it at other occasions and festivals.

Food and Music

Beer at the Wiesn comes with food, and each tent has its own kitchen.

• Hendl. Roast half-chicken, a classic festival dish.
• Schweinshaxe. Roast pork knuckle.
• Brezn. The large soft pretzel, eaten with beer or with Obatzda, a Bavarian cheese spread.
• Weißwurst. The white sausage, by tradition eaten in the morning, with sweet mustard and a pretzel (check this tradition).
• Steckerlfisch. Fish grilled on a stick.
• Sweets. Gingerbread hearts, Lebkuchenherzen, with messages in icing, worn on a ribbon around the neck.

Each tent has a brass band, and the programme includes folk songs, the traditional toast Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit, and in the evening popular songs that people sing standing on the benches (check the toast). Standing on the benches is often treated as a rite of passage, and in some tents, only after a certain hour.

Practical Advice

• Get there early. Tents can fill and be closed to new entrants at busy times (check).
• Eat as well as drink. The Festbier is stronger than most visitors expect, and a Maß is a litre.
• Look after yourself and others. Know your limits, keep your belongings safe, and make sure you can get home without driving (see the note in Chapter 1).
• Try the quieter side. A traditional area of the grounds with older rides and a quieter atmosphere has been set up in recent years (check the name and the details).

Other Festivals and Imitations

Munich's is the biggest, but Germany has hundreds of other beer and folk festivals, many of them more local and a good deal calmer.

• Cannstatter Volksfest. In Stuttgart, one of the largest and often called the second-largest festival of its type (check the claim).
• Bergkirchweih. A beer festival on a hill in Erlangen, Franconia, held among cellars, in the manner of the beer gardens of Chapter 6 (check).
• Freimarkt. A large autumn fair in Bremen (check).
• The world over. Cities from Ontario to Brazil to Japan hold a local Oktoberfest, some of them very large, and many pubs and breweries in Britain, including in Edinburgh, put on their own versions (check examples). They borrow the costumes, the sausages and the toasts, but not, in general, the Munich rules.

Exercises

Next chapter: Beer in Politics and Society, which looks at beer halls and politics, East German brewing, beer tax and the European single market.