Trip 43

Monday September 18,2023

The weather earlier in the day was overcast and cooler, but there is a forecast of rain about 1pm. We were already at the Weisn (no brolly) and it started to spit a bit of rain about 2:30. It never turned into much, but you’d get damp.

Even though it’s Monday, there’s quite a line up of folks queuing to get into the grounds. The crowds are definitely less than opening day ;September 16), but this is certainly expected for a week day.

We wanted to look through a few of the smaller tents, but Google Maps wasn’t especially helpful (should have looked beforehand). I doubt that the major tent locations change much from year to year, but this meant more walking. Oktoberfest is held in the same place every year, but what you may not think about is that they tear down and rebuild the buildings every year; 14 major and 21 smaller beer tents, along with all the rides and souvenir stands.

Construction for the 2023 Oktoberfest in Munich officially began on July 10th, 68 days before the start of the world’s largest folk festival. Each year the beer tents are built from scratch, a process that takes around 70 days. Some of the larger buildings are several blocks long and two to three stories tall. The Hofbräu tent, with a total of almost 10,000 seats, the largest beer tent at the Oktoberfest (6,018 seats and 1,000 standing places indoors, and an additional 3,022 seats outdoor). Oktoberfest is also the biggest construction site in Bavaria, reoccurring every year. While the festival itself lasts only 16 days, the Oktoberfest construction on Munich’s Theresienwiese takes up 68-70 days. During this time several thousand people conduct a mammoth project.

The top priority on the Oktoberfest construction site are the big tents; the rides are a separate affair. The carneys have two to five weeks left for setting up their shows and rides, some of which come exclusively to the Wiesn. As large and complex as the Oktoberfest event is, with the relatively short time frame to get everything completed, there are staff dedicated to this year round. After the Fest is over, the tear down begins. Most of the parts are reused and stored like giant Lego sets in storehouses around Munich, waiting for their mission in the next year. Wow, what a bunch of erector sets; hope they keep the instructions!

We started out at the Käfer Wiesn-Schänke, which looks like a huge log cabin. This family has operated a Biergarten at Oktoberfest for 50 years.

We had a maß and a dampknudel, (a dumpling with warm vanilla sauce).

Walking down the side streets, there’s a bier wagon being pulled by a team of horses. They’re stopped for people to admire the horses.

For the horses’ sake, I doubt the wagon is actually loaded with bier, it comes in via pipeline.

There’s a huge variety of not only sizes/seating capacity in the tents, but some definitely have different orientation in terms of more or less party atmosphere (looking at you, Hofbrau) or family oriented and even a wein (wine) tent that stays open until 1am. The Hofbräu festival tent is the second largest festival hall at the Oktoberfest, offering space for roughly 10,000 Oktoberfest visitors.

We did a little souvenir shopping and left about 3:30, but people were still streaming in.

I really enjoyed our five days in Munich, the longest stretch we’ve ever stayed here. Munich is definitely one of our favorite cities and our first Oktoberfest adds to our fun memories here. There is so much to see at Oktoberfest we didn’t see, which means we’ll need to return!