Shlocktoberfest
My first visit was on the first Sunday. The whole shebang opens on the Saturday with the incumbent Mayor of Munich tapping the first barrel. Then, it’s a free-for-all. It opens around midday, each day, and the afternoons are relatively laid back (by comparison to the evenings) and the thing that is the biggest shock to the system is the scale of the whole thing. So many people, so much going on, waiting staff carrying huge trays of food, waitresses carrying as many as eight Maß at a time, which is incredible if you’ve ever lifted a Maß yourself; these are heavy glass mugs containing a liter of bier and they’re damn heavy.
The second thing you notice is that, yes, the men really do wear Lederhosen and the ladies Dirndls. Now, [some of] the girls do look rather fetching in this traditional Bavarian outfit, but no one looks good in Lederhosen (apart from the occasional hot chick, that is). Sorry, but they are just not a good look, no matter which way you slice it.
Whilst some tents have advanced to having rock bands playing music, most feature traditional brass oompah bands that launch into traditional drinking songs every five minutes, at which point, everyone stands up, sings drunkenly along, and smashes their beer mugs together. This has two main effects. Firstly, you get drunk very quickly and, secondly, you end up drinking an awful lot of bier! It’s a bit of a vicious circle, and the only outcome is that you get very drunk. Having got used to drinking the German bier (or so I thought) I was surprised how drunk you actually get. Although they no longer brew special Oktoberfest bier, the normal stuff is plenty strong at around 5-6% and, when you start at midday and, say, drink one Maß an hour (not unreasonable) by 11pm, you are lucky if you can stand up, let alone find your way home!
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The second thing you notice is that, yes, the men really do wear Lederhosen and the ladies Dirndls. Now, [some of] the girls do look rather fetching in this traditional Bavarian outfit, but no one looks good in Lederhosen (apart from the occasional hot chick, that is). Sorry, but they are just not a good look, no matter which way you slice it.
Whilst some tents have advanced to having rock bands playing music, most feature traditional brass oompah bands that launch into traditional drinking songs every five minutes, at which point, everyone stands up, sings drunkenly along, and smashes their beer mugs together. This has two main effects. Firstly, you get drunk very quickly and, secondly, you end up drinking an awful lot of bier! It’s a bit of a vicious circle, and the only outcome is that you get very drunk. Having got used to drinking the German bier (or so I thought) I was surprised how drunk you actually get. Although they no longer brew special Oktoberfest bier, the normal stuff is plenty strong at around 5-6% and, when you start at midday and, say, drink one Maß an hour (not unreasonable) by 11pm, you are lucky if you can stand up, let alone find your way home!
Click here for the next bit
