There is hardly a beer lover who has never heard of the main European festival - Oktoberfest. For 16 days every year, Munich becomes the most fun place in the world. The festival is visited annually by six million people, and tickets are sold out within a few hours after the start of sales. The participants of the festival are waiting for: beers from around the world, including specially brewed Oktoberfest, contests, tastings, rallies, dances, costume processions and much more. If you have attended such an event at least once, you will have something to tell your children and grandchildren!
Festival History
The first festival took place in October 1810 in honor of the wedding of the future King Ludwig I and Princess Theresa of Saxony-Hildburghaus, in honor of which later they will name the meadow - the venue of the festival. At first, the organization of Oktoberfest was a private initiative. When it was decided on the annual celebration of the holiday, all the worries about the organization fell on the shoulders of the Munich administration.
Important dates in the development of Oktoberfest:
- 1872 - the festival was moved to September due to more comfortable weather conditions.
- 1881 - Opening of the first chicken roasting pan
- 1892 - beer began to be sold in glass mugs familiar to us
- 1892 - tents acquired a modern look: before that, they were more like scenes, podiums, dance floors.
- 1886 - the venue for the festival was electrified
- 1901 - a life-size Bedouin village was recreated to attract more visitors to the site
- 1910 - Centennial of Oktoberfest
- 1950 - the establishment of the tradition of starting the festival with twelve shots into the sky from a cannon
- 1960 - the first foreign tourists at the festival.
What awaits the participants?
- Costume parties.
- Procession of beer tent holders during the official opening of Oktoberfest. The procession is accompanied by the Mayor of Munich, an orchestra of beer tents and teams of beer barrels.
- The opening ceremony of the beer barrel. Exactly at 12:00 in the barrel, the mayor-burgomaster drives a crane with a special hammer. This is a sign: from now on sale of beer is permitted.
- Costumed procession, first held in 1835. The first Sunday of the festival begins with a procession of 8,000 people dressed in historical costumes. Their route passes through Munich, length - 7 kilometers. In addition to people in the procession, orchestras, arrows, decorated teams.
- Attractions.
Interesting Facts
- Especially for the festival, Munich breweries brew a special beer
- For the first time in the last 70 years in 2020, Oktoberfest was canceled due to the spread of coronavirus infection. Before that, the festival was canceled: in 1813 due to the Napoleonic Wars, from 1914 to 1918 due to the First World War, from 1939 to 1945 due to the Second World War, in 2001 due to a terrorist attack in New York.
- The electrification of the festival was carried out by a company owned by Albert Einstein's father. There is a version that the scientist himself participated in the process.
- In the year of the centenary of the festival - in 1910 - 1.2 million liters of beer were sold
- The largest tent accommodates ten thousand people
- The first mug of the festival, according to tradition, goes to the chief mayor
- Every year, people monitor how many strokes a burgomaster will need to open a beer barrel. The best result was Christian Ude's only hit in 2006.
The object belongs to the festivals.
