The Todds in Munich

In late September of 2022, our family made a trip to Munich, and we all had the pleasure of attending Oktoberfest!

The festival is held at the Theresienwiese. “Wiese” means “Meadow” in German, and true to its name, this is a big green space that is used as a fairground for various events throughout the year. It is named after Princess Therese, who was married there in 1810. Oktoberfest has been held there every year thereafter to commemorate the wedding, with the exclusion of 26 years, due to the world wars and epidemics, most recently including COVID which cancelled the festival during 2020 and 2021. Because of this, 2022 was a special year with the resumption of the celebration.

During Oktoberfest, Theresienwiese holds a full carnival, many food options, parades, and events, but the key experience is the tents.  There are 38 tents, with the largest holding 10,000 people so it’s a massive amount of people, with 5.7 million visitors over 16 days in 2022. The tents have long tables with open seating for which people line up early, especially on the weekends, with some people literally lying on the table to reserve seats for their friends. Get tickets if you can, but if not make sure to get there early because once the tent reaches capacity it doesn’t let anyone else in.

We arrived on Munich’s excellent subway system, disembarking at the Theresienwiese station. The streets around the festival were closed, and it was a fun procession of happy people through the streets. We bought outfits, and we were a bit nervous that we’d stick out as tourists, but recent years have seen renewed interest by young Germans in traditional clothing, and we found ourselves in a sea of Dirndl dresses and Lederhosen. If you’re going, don’t be afraid to dress up!

Tickets can be hard to come by (get them early), but we were lucky enough to get tickets and reserved seats for the Löwenbräu tent. Make sure to get in before it fills up, because once the tent is full, the doors close. Tickets are just for a specific tent, so we stayed there the whole time. Each tent only serves one brewery’s beer, with the choices generally being a light or toasty lager and non-alcoholic options such as lemonade and water. Servers come around and take your order, and are very efficient getting it to you quickly, often holding eight liter-sized glasses at a time. Bring cash – credit cards are a pain to use in the tent. There is food on offer also, which was of varying quality. There was roast chicken and duck which was kind of dry, amazing pork options including a knuckle and roast port, and a vegetarian Käsespätzle which was my favorite thing on the menu. The dark beer at Oktoberfest is what we expect out of an Oktoberfest in the States –  a bready amber colored Marzen beer with a malty backbone flavor and subdued hops. However, the most popular option by far is the Festbier. This is a special version of a Helles, which is a bright golden lager that is brewed specially for the occasion to a stronger than usual ABV of 6%. It has to be brewed within the Munich city limits and use traditional methods including natural carbonation, which produces very fine bubles that give it a silky mouthfeel. I tried many versions of this type of beer when I was in Munich, and it was fantastic across the board. You would never guess this is a 6% beer – it just tastes like a very well balanced and flavorful lager, so you have to be careful. We heard many stories of hospital visits resulting from overly enthusiastic cheersing with those massive glass steins.

Each tent has over the top decorations, and ours had ribbons twined through the ceiling and statues of alpine lamplighters flanking the floor. After 112 years, the organizers have the logistics down pat, and getting in and out of the tent was remarkably efficient. The crowd was well behaved and evenly mixed gender-wise, with a big cohort of 20-somethings but lots of diversity there too. We even brought our toddler, who was welcome until 8 o’clock when all kids are required to leave. Everyone starts by sitting on the benches and eating their food, but soon enough, everyone is standing on their benches with stein in hand. Our tent had a traditional German brass band that was fantastic and played a range of music from traditional oompa songs to modern pop hits. The thing that really brought the crowd together was the very regular (every 15 minutes) singing of Ein Prosit (I Salute You). Everybody joins in and it’s thunderous. The party goes until 11:30, at which time the lights come up and the whole orderly process reverses itself, spilling the revelers back out onto the street and into the subway.

We stayed in Munich for a week, and I’d recommend it as a year-round destination with many museums and attractions and a nice walkable layout. However, if you can make it during Oktoberfest, it’s a cultural event not to be missed!