Amazing Tips to Celebrate Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany

Talk about festivals and Oktoberfest would suddenly pop in your minds. Germans would wait the entire year only to pop out on those beer tents at the moment it is flung open for public. Such craze comes with the unparalleled history it brings with itself. The festival is celebrated on the occasion of the marriage anniversary of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese on October 12, 1810. Since all the township was invited to attend the wedding, the festival is celebrated in entire Germany. The wedding was named Theresienwiese after the Princess. The party was so large and widespread that people asked the king Ludwig the celebration the next year too. Since then, the marriage anniversary has been celebrated every year without break. Oktoberfest in the year 2018 will mark the 201st anniversary of the festivities.

During the first half of the year, the grounds work as a public park. Come June, the tents and the fun fair starts to take place and the foundations for the beer tents are laid. The construction has to be completed by the late September in time for the festival. The area is spread into 420,000 sq feet.

Where was the Oktoberfest celebrated for the first time?

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The marriage ceremony took place outside the palace gates and these remnants still stand outside the fields. The celebration place is known by locals as the Wies’n. The fields outside the gates now host the largest beer festival in the world. The festival is called the Oktoberfest. The simple wedding procession has now turned into a 17 or 18-day festival in which 7 million people participate from throughout the world. They consume more than 6 million liters of Bavarian Beer, that is equal to 1 million gallons of beer. Isn’t that stupendous? Well, if you love beer, Oktoberfest has to be on your bucket list.

On the Day of the Oktoberfest

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The Oktoberfest begins on the second to last Saturday in September. It begins officially at noon when the city mayor of Munich taps the first barrel at the Schottenhamel Tent, crying “O’zapft is” (It’s open). The festival lasts till the first Sunday of the October on the same date of reunification on October 5. There happen to be 14 main beer tents at the Theresienwiese grounds. The beer is served by the Maß (1-liter stein).

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There are 6 large tents which refill up to 12,000 people per day. There are a total of six breweries that represent themselves here - Späten, Augustiner, Paulaner, Hacker-Poschorr, Hofbräu, and Löwenbräu. At last everyone gets to have their preferred brew by the end of the day. Which is your favorite beer? Do let us know in the comments below.

Why is Oktoberfest Celebrated in the Month of September?

The marriage of King Ludwig and Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The first celebration was done on October 12, 1810, and lasted a week till October 17 and the procession ended with a horse race. The gala dates started to stretch and became of 15 days. Thus the dates were brought down in the September month. After the reunification, the Oktoberfest was also celebrated to mark the coming together of East and West Germany.  

How to get the Beer Tent Reservations at Oktoberfest?

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It is a really long process to book the Beer tents and you would not always get what you wanted. The systems at different tents differ accordingly and they start the process of reservations at different times of the year. Hence it can be tough to say if you would get a booking. But if you start well and book the tents by the end of June, you would not only get a good seat but also fair prices. Remember, you can only make the reservations in groups of 8-10 people and most reservations go to locals who have held tables at the Wiesen for generations.

How much does a Liter of Beer cost in the Oktoberfest?

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A bottle of one liter of beer can cost from €8 and €10 per liter (about $10-13). One liter of table water can cost €6 while soft drinks cost about €6-7.

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