Six million visitors. Millions of beer steins. And no measly half-litres. At Oktoberfest, you get your beer in a Mass– a one-litre tankard.
A group of us had celebrated Oktoberfest locally for a few years. Now we were finally going to experience the real thing.
On the last Saturday of September, the traditional festival gets under way. People pour out of the U-Bahn at Theresienwiese and are ushered into the queue by guards dressed in yellow. At noon, a cannon is fired to announce that the beer taps may be opened. A line of waiters in lederhosen stands ready and storms out of the beer-serving rooms, laden with steins, while a unanimous roar rises from the tents and outdoor seating areas.
We had made our preparations. Early in the spring, we had already booked a table for ten in the Marstall tent and a hotel just outside the city centre; our lederhosen and dirndl were packed and ready in the suitcase.
Augustiner Keller
We arrived on Thursday evening. We spent Saturday sightseeing, before having dinner that evening at the enormous Augustiner Keller. There is room for 5,000 people in the outdoor beer garden, and the atmosphere was already lively. People had clearly begun warming up for Wiesn.
We tried to contribute as best we could and actually got told off by a guard who thought we were celebrating a bit too loudly. Even though we weren’t dancing on the table. Singing along while standing on the bench, on the other hand, was perfectly fine.
At the back of the venue, there was a stage where guests who had drunk up enough courage could perform their artistic talents. It was hard to get anyone’s attention.
On Saturday, we also managed to catch the opening parade. The breweries’ horse-drawn beer wagons paraded to the Wiesn and stopped in front of their respective tents. We followed the crowd and just managed to secure a table at an outdoor seating area before the cannon fired the opening salute.
A few liters later, we strolled around and took in the enormous fairground that Wiesn really is. Besides the many places serving adults, there are countless attractions for the little ones—carousels and rides that lift you so high you hardly need to drink beer to feel dizzy.
Löwenbräukeller
We spent Saturday evening at the classic Löwenbräukeller. Not actually in the cellar, but on the second floor. It was a festive evening with plentiful traditional food and live music.
The Alpine rock band Lausbuam – “the lice boys” – played rocking Tyrolean music and encouraged the audience to sing along. The crowd did not need to be asked twice. Soon, people were standing on the benches, whooping and singing.
But an Oktoberfest isn’t complete without a proper visit to a beer tent. As mentioned, it’s wise to reserve a table well in advance, but there are always some unreserved seats too. Just queue up and hope for the best.
The Marstall Tent
The Marstall tent is the smallest of the large tents, with “only” 4,000 seats.
But my goodness, those 4,000 really made themselves heard.
Here too, people were standing on the benches and singing, while the oompah band next to us churned out old oompah tunes—clearly old favourites among the Germans. We Norwegians tried to keep up as best we could, with the greatest success when “Ein Prosit, ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit” was played roughly every ten minutes.
The food was served on a table about 40 centimetres wide. Hearty German home cooking in generous portions at noon was a bit too much, even for a group that had come to Munich to eat and drink.
Once Wiesn was finally over for us, there was only one thing we felt like: pizza, in peaceful surroundings.
