Oktoberfest is celebrated across the world, but nothing is quite like Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. The 16-day festival kicked off on September 19th and over 6 million people are expected to attend.
The 182nd annual Oktoberfest is complete with fair rides, games, music, parades, food and of course plenty of beer. Oktoberfest is the world’s largest beer festival, but only a few different beers are served because the only beer allowed are ones that are brewed within the city limits of Munich. Augustiner-Brau, Hacker-Pschorr-Brau, Lowenbrau, Paulaner, Spatenbrau and Staatliches Hofbrau-Munchen make the cut and can be found at tents all over the festival grounds. Around 6.7 millions liters of beer is consumed every year at Oktoberfest and bartenders are known to only take 1.5 seconds to fill a liter of beer.
Courtesy of euruni.edu
Visitors can use that beer to chase down some tasty traditional German food. The festival sells food like sausages (Würstl), white sausage (Weisswurst) pretzels (Brezens), Sauerkraut, potato pancakes (Reiberdatschi) and much more. It is encouraged to dress up for the festival in traditional Barvarian clothes or medieval historic outfits.
Each day there is always something exciting and fun going on, but the opening ceremony is an event that is one of the best. This year, the Mayor had the honor of tapping the first barrel and a few people took the challenge and successfully drank beer out of a boot. (You have all seen the movie Oktoberfest).
Courtesy of mnbeeractivists.com
It is always fun to attend your local Oktoberfest celebrations, but if you ever get the chance, you have to go to Germany to attend the original Oktoberfest. The festivities date back to over 180 years ago and each year has gotten bigger and better.
Feature image courtesy of oktoberfest-munchen.com.
Categories: Food & Drink, Fun Stuff, Munich
