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- A beer festival is an event at which a variety of beers are available for purchase. There may be a theme, for instance beers from a particular area, or a particular brewing style such as winter ales.
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3 days ago · Oktoberfest, annual festival in Munich, Germany, held over a two-week period and ending on the first Sunday in October. The festival originated on October 12, 1810, in celebration of the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria, who later became King Louis I, to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Overview
- When was the first Oktoberfest?
- How did Oktoberfest evolve?
- Why is Oktoberfest in September?
- How is Oktoberfest celebrated now?
Beer. Brats. Lederhosen. Every September, Munich hosts the largest folk festival in the world. Here’s how the tradition got started.
A crowd drinks beer in a large pavilion in Munich, Germany, to celebrate Oktoberfest. For more than 200 years, this annual festival has been a quintessential German tradition—and its roots date back to the early days of the Kingdom of Bavaria.
Every year, millions of revelers descend on a tent-filled meadow in Munich to celebrate the love of long-ago Bavarian royals at a celebration known as Oktoberfest.
Just kidding: These days people flock to Munich's Oktoberfest with the hope of consuming liters upon liters of beer, indulging in German delicacies from bratwurst sausages to giant pretzels, and showing off their finest dirndls, traditional bodices for women, and lederhosen, traditional breeches for men.
The annual event held in Germany is the largest folk festival in the world—and also the largest beer festival, with revelers consuming approximately six million liters of ale each year. Inside its tents, you can fill your stein with lager to your heart’s content, dance to German folk music, and even go on carnival rides.
(A guide to Munich, Germany's boisterous beer capital.)
The original Oktoberfest was, in fact, held in October—on October 17, 1810, to be exact, in honor of the nuptials a few days earlier of Bavarian crown prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Legend has it that a member of the national guard came up with the idea of a festival for the common people, but scholars have cast doubt on those claims.
(Life for this other Bavarian princess was no fairy tale.)
What we do know is that Bavaria at the time was a brand new kingdom: After years as an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, the German state had recently been elevated as a result of King Maximilian I’s alliance with Napoleon. In addition to celebrating his son’s marriage, the festival held in its capital city was thus also an opportunity to foster and showcase a newfound sense of national pride.
The original Oktoberfest was a week of games that centered on a horse race, a particularly beloved tradition in Munich back then. Although most of the trappings of the modern Oktoberfest were not yet part of the event—beer concessions began in 1815—it was considered a rousing success. The meadow where it was held (and is still held today) has since been named "Theresienwiese" in honor of the bride.
Bavarians clamored for more. But without a royal wedding to foot the bill, someone else had to take over the event planning. The following year, the Bavarian Agricultural Association stepped in—a local power player at a time when agriculture ruled in Bavaria. In addition to races, they held cattle markets and displays of prize-winning animals akin to a modern state fair.
The city of Munich took over after 1819, however, and in the decades after that the modern Oktoberfest began to take shape with the addition of merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels, and chicken roasteries. While the official Oktoberfest is still held on the same field in Munich, there are now Oktoberfest events held throughout the country as a celebration of German heritage.
(Can't get to Munich? Here are our top 10 other Oktoberfests.)
And how about the beer? It quickly became a quintessential part of the festivities. In 1835, historian Jeffrey Gaab writes that revelers consumed 250,000 liters of beer, and in 1895 breweries began to build temporary beer halls to accommodate visitors.
So why is Oktoberfest celebrated in September today? The answer is simple: weather.
As early as 1828, festivalgoers had begun to complain about Bavaria’s rainy October weather, writes Moses Wolff in his Oktoberfest guide Meet Me in Munich. They pushed to move the celebration to a more temperate time of year—mostly unsuccessfully, as the city didn’t want to disrupt harvest season.
Through the years, Oktoberfest has only been canceled 26 times, including for the Napoleonic wars in 1813, various cholera epidemics, both world wars, and most recently the COVID pandemic.
Today’s Oktoberfest looks quite a bit different from the early 19th century festivities. For one, horse races are no longer part of the event, except in anniversary years to honor its origins. The amount of beer consumed at Oktoberfest has also grown considerably alongside its attendance figures—from 1.5 million liters of beer in 1950 to four million liters in 1970 and then six million liters from the 1990s onward.
- Amy Mckeever
Sep 16, 2017 · Oktoberfest is the world's largest beer celebration and typically draws over six million visitors over its three-week run. Oktoberfest includes massive beer tents, each run by a...
Oktoberfest (German pronunciation: [ɔkˈtoːbɐˌfɛst] ⓘ; Bavarian: Wiesn, Oktobafest) is the world's largest Volksfest, featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival, and is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, from mid- or late-September to the first Sunday in October, with more than six million international and national visitors ...
Oktoberfest is an annual beer festival in Germany, that attracts millions of international visitors. But did you know that not all Germans celebrate Oktoberfest? It's actually a regional festival that originates from the southeastern state of Germany called Bavaria .
Oktoberfest is Germany's most popular festival and the biggest beer festival in the world. It has been imitated in far-flung places across the world, but Munich's is the original. Origins of Oktoberfest.
Mar 28, 2024 · Welcome to Oktoberfest, the world’s largest beer festival held annually in Munich, Germany—a festive embodiment of German culture and conviviality. In this guide, we’re going to walk you through everything you need to know before you join the millions of visitors who flock to Munich for this legendary event.
