Munich Oktoberfest – “O’zapft is!”

The famous “Oktoberfest“ is one of the most popular beer festivals all over the world with some six million people attending every year.

Our teachers told us that we should attend the opening ceremony. The Oktoberfest staff and the breweries move through the city with splendidly decorated horses and coaches and traditional dresses. The area where the festival takes place is called the “Theresienwiese”, or “Wiesn” for short.

The festival starts as soon as the first keg of beer is tapped by the Mayor of Munich who then declares: “O’zapft is!”. This is Bavarian and means “It is tapped!”

Beer plays a central role in the festival. A special Oktoberfest beer is brewed for the occasion. It is slightly darker and stronger in both taste and alcohol and is served in a one-liter-tankard called “Maß”. All major local breweries pitch their own beer tent, on the Theresienwiese, where they serve their own beer.

Besides beer there is also a lot of traditional food available like chicken, which they call “Hendl” or sausages or “Sauerkraut”. While drinking and eating you can enjoy live music and you can even dance on the ale-bench… The beer tents are large enough for thousands of people.

I eagerly await the beginning of the “Wiesn”. I will go together with my friends from the school. First we want to visit a beer tent and afterwards to look around to see all the other attractions: roller coasters, chain flyer, Olympia looping and also the more traditional shows such as the old-fashioned merry-go-round “Krinoline” with live music and the “Zugspitze-Railway”. It all sounds like great fun!

Melanie