There are fairground attractions: amusement rides, sidestalls and games
Food stands serving Hendl (roast chicken, Schweinebraten (roast pork), Schweinshaxe (grilled ham hock), Steckerlfisch (grilled fish on a stick), Würstl (sausages), Brezen (pretzel), Knödel (potato / bread dumplings) Käsespätzle (cheese noodles), Reiberdatschi (potato pancakes), Sauerkraut or Rotkohl/Blaukraut (cabbage), Obatzda (cheese-butter spread) and Weisswurst (white sausage) – all Bavarian traditional foods.
Since 1850 there is a parade at the beginning of the festival – 8,000 people in traditional costumes walk from Maximilian Street, through Munich’s centre to Theresienwiese, the grounds of Oktoberfest.
Since 1950 there has also been a 12-gun salute and the midday tapping of the first keg by Munich’s Mayor to open the event.
Only certain beer can be served at Oktoberfest – it has to meet the “German Beer Purity Law” (Reinheitsgebot) and brewed within Munich.
Six breweries meet this standard and can serve proper Oktoberfest beer (2% stronger than normal beer):
· Augustiner-Bräu
· Hacker-Pschorr-Bräu
· Löwenbräu
· Paulaner
· Spatenbräu
· Staatliches Hofbräu- München
Every year the tents are set-up and taken-down (a process taking months). There are 14 large tents and 20 small tents – all with varying seating amounts (info courtesy of Wikipedia).
Name
|
Seating
|
Comments
|
|
inside
|
outside
|
||
Hippodrom
|
3,200
|
1,000
|
Translates as "Horse race place"
from Greek. One of the larger tents, it's the first tent that many visitors
see at the fest. As well as serving normal Wiesn beer, it has aSekt (sparkling wine) bar and Maß of Weißbier. Considered one of the
trendiest tents, and attracts the occasional celebrity. Traditionally in the
evening the Oktoberfest band theMünchner Zwietracht (de) plays all the Oktoberfest classics.
|
Armbrustschützenzelt
(Paulaner)
|
5,839
|
1,600
|
Translates as the "Crossbowman's
Tent", a competition that has been a part of the Oktoberfest since 1895.
|
|
6,896
|
3,622
|
The counterpart to the famous Hofbräuhaus,
this tent is especially popular with Americans, Australians and New
Zealanders.
|
Hacker-Festzelt
|
6,900
|
2,400
|
One of the largest tents on the Wiesn, they
have a rock band that plays during the evening break of the brass band. This
tent is also known as "Himmel der Bayern" (Heaven of the Bavarians).
|
Schottenhamel
(Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu)
|
6,000
|
4,000
|
Reckoned to be the most important tent at the
Oktoberfest, mainly because it is where it starts. On the first Saturday of
the event, no beer is allowed to be served until the mayor of Munich
(currently Dieter Reiter) taps the first keg, at noon.[22] Only then can the other tents begin to
serve beer. Very popular amongst younger people. A substantial part of the
tent is guaranteed to traditional Studentenverbindungen (a particular form of student fraternities) and outfitted with
their distinctive colors and coats of arms.
|
Winzerer Fähndl
(Paulaner)
|
8,450
|
2,450
|
Translates as "Winzerers (bavarian
surname) flag". This tent is noted for its huge tower, with a Maß of
Paulaner beer sitting atop it.
|
Schützen-Festhalle
|
4,442
|
0
|
This is a mid-sized tent. Situated under the Bavaria statue, the current tent was newly built in 2004.
|
Käfers Wiesen Schänke
(Paulaner)
|
1,000
|
1,900
|
The smallest of the large tents at the
Oktoberfest, it is frequented by celebrities, and is known for its especially
good food. In contrast to the other tents (which must close by 11 pm),
it is open until 12:30 am, but it can be very difficult to get in.
|
Weinzelt
(Nymphenburger Sekt / Paulaner Weißbier)
|
1,300
|
600
|
Translates as "wine tent". This tent
offers a selection of more than 15 wines, as well as Weißbier.
|
Löwenbräu-Festhalle
(Löwenbräu)
|
5,700
|
2,800
|
Above the entrance is a 4.50 meter
(15 foot) lion who occasionally drinks from his beer.
This is overshadowed by another tower where another drinking lion sits.
|
Bräurosl
(Hacker-Pschorr)
|
6,000
|
2,200
|
Translates as "brewers Rosemary".
Named after the daughter of the original brewery owner (Pschorr), this tent
has the usual brass band and a yodeler.
|
Augustiner-Festhalle
|
6,000
|
2,500
|
Considered by many locals to be the best tent,
due to the fact it sells the favourite local brew, Augustiner, from individually tapped wooden kegs rather
than stainless steel vats used by the other tents.
|
Ochsenbraterei
(Spaten)
|
5,900
|
1,500
|
True to its name, this tent offers a great
variety of ox dishes.
|
Fischer-Vroni
(Augustiner)
|
2,695
|
700
|
Translates as "Fishers Veronika".
Another of the smaller tents. Fisch is the German word for fish and this tent carries a huge selection
in its menu. The main dish isSteckerlfisch, which is
grilled outside of the tent.
|
Through work we had tickets which meant we had tables from midday. Approx 4.30pm we were kicked off our table to make room for the evening bookings and so headed to the crowded shots bar.
On the first Saturday of Oktoberfest, I had one of my besties come over to visit me. Ticket-less we headed to the festival on probably its busiest day! Rookie mistake. We couldn’t get into any of the tents as they were already full and, understandably, no-one was leaving once they made it inside! We queued for about an hour in the on-and-off rain before giving up.
After wandering around the fairground…
…and treating ourselves to some pickled herring…
We came across the Café Mohrenkopf tent.
By this stage, it was like finding heaven!
This 400-people tent is the only café-tent with its own bakery at Oktoberfest and has been at the festival since 1950. It had a lovely relaxed atmosphere inside and we happily took a seat in the pastel coloured paradise!
The tent serves Dallmayr coffee (one of Germany’s most renowned coffee specialists) as well as cocktails and other drinks. As a non-beer drinker, I was delighted! We opted for glasses of Proseco to celebrate our success.
Followed by an indulgent piece of cake….the tent’s speciality is the “Mohrenkopf”, a small, chocolate-glazed cream-cake, but I went for a nutty layer cake instead – yum yum !
A lot of attendees wear traditional Bavarian dress (or tourist versions of!): dirndl for women, lederhosen for men. Check out my dirndl-buying experience here… It also turns out that the locals have nicknamed the middle weekend of Oktoberfest “Italian Weekend” due to the large amounts of Italians (& Australians) that flood to the city over this time – they consider Munich to be the northern most city of Italy!!
If you missed this year and want to go next year, it will be running 19 September – 4 October 2015. Or there are other beer-related festivals in the same place in April/May (Spring Festival – Frühlingsfest) and December (Tollwood-Festival).
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