If you are anywhere near Germany for the last three weekends of September, it is this author’s sincere recommendation that you go to Oktoberfest. For those of you who do not know, Oktoberfest is the world’s largest beer festival. According to materials from the travel company Bus2Alps, over the three weekends of the festival, six million people from all over the world will eat 18 million chickens and drink 8 million liters of some of the world’s best beer. Do I really need to do any more convincing?
To be entirely truthful, Oktoberfest is actually the world’s largest wedding anniversary. The Crown Prince Ludwig was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on Oct. 12, 1810. The citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held on the fields in front of the city gates to celebrate the happy royal event. The fields have since been named Theresienwiese. Horse races in the presence of the Royal Family marked the close of the event. It was celebrated as a festival for the whole of Bavaria, a region of Germany.
In 1811, the festival continued with horse races and an Agricultural Show. In 1816, carnival games were introduced. As the 1800s rolled on, the traditional parade commemorating Ludwig was added, food stalls were constructed, and large glass mugs of beer were introduced. By the end of the 19th century, Oktoberfest had evolved into the giant party that this author was proud to have taken part in last week.
I will attempt to summarize the experience and point out some highlights.
First of all, the festival itself is essentially a giant county fair. There are carnival rides, food stands, and it is absolutely impossible to find parking. Though, considering the sheer amount of beer consumed over the course of the festival, that is probably a good thing.
However, Oktoberfest has something no other fair does: beer tents. Don’t let the name fool you, as most of these glorious establishments are not literal tents. For the most part, they’re small buildings, with the exception of the two of the most celebrated tents, which I will now talk about — since they’re the only two I made it to.
First of all, the Hofbrau tent is by far my favorite tent. It is the largest, most popular tent, and it is where you will find the majority of Americans, Australians, and other English-speaking foreigners. After waking up at 7 a.m. to get a seat, I managed to get my hands on my first beer of the festival at about 9. Ignoring the possible repercussions of drinking that early, I took my first sip. And in that split second, I completely understood why Keystone Light was the worst thing in the world. There are no words to describe how good that beer tasted. It was crisp and cold and happy and it felt like home. I ordered a few more steins.
After leaving the Hofbrau’s loving arms, I decided to get something to eat. At this point, my options were many and varied. However, having heard good things about Oktoberfest chicken, I decided to try some. This chicken is slowly cooked rotisserie style, wrapped in herbs, and served with a few wooden skewers and a bundle of paper and napkin that you will eventually use up in the vain attempt to clean off your face from the godly flavor of this chicken. Try it.
Eventually, I somehow made it to the Augustiner Tent. This is actually Munich’s oldest brewery, whereas Hofbrau is simply the largest. It’s like Yuengling and Anheuser-Busch, except it makes them both taste like water and urine. This tent is a far more authentic experience. (Think more lederhosen — a lot more lederhosen.) There are also more German songs and table dancing, whereas Hofbrau really only offers British people singing football chants and the occasional New Zealander drunkenly doing a traditional Maori dance. Either tent is an incredible time, and I encourage anyone who makes it out there to try both, or try new ones.
Which acts as a lovely transition into my next point: time. You will need a lot of it, and you will need to make the most of whatever time you have. This requires pre-planning. You need to wake up early if you want to make it to the tents in time for a seat. You want to plan what tents to go to, and try and find out how quickly they fill up. Don’t be ashamed to ask locals, for the most part they are friendly, helpful and moderately fluent in English well enough. Don’t leave a fun tent just to try and stick to a concrete plan, but definitely have a framework.
And for the love of God, go to Oktoberfest. All of you.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
