Oktoberfest - Preparations
The Oktoberfest 2009 in Munich will take place from 19th of September until 4th of October. Like every year, it will be crowded with locals and tourists as well.
But even though you might not yet be in the mood for the famous Bavarian Beer Festival, the construction workers already start almost 3 month before the opening date to prepare everything.
Starting from the metro station Theresienwiese (U4 and U5), the first tent you'll see, is the Spaten. As you can see, there is still a lot more work to do, but you can be sure everything will be ready for the Anstich (opening ceremony)!
Meanwhile, I want to show you the "Wies'n" like most visitors will never see her. Wies'n is how the locals
call the Oktoberfest. It's Bavarian for the German word "Wiese" and means meadow in English.
The name is a short name for the place where the October fest is held. The big square is called "Theresienwiese"
and was a meadow many years ago. Today most of the square is covered with tarmac, but there are still parts with lawn.
The building to the left is the Hofbräu tent. You probably have heard about the Hofbräuhaus. This is the corresponding beer
tent at the Oktoberfest.
By the way, the "tents" are not really tents anymore. Nowadays they are made of steel and wood, almost like houses. Because of the many visitors (a few thousands per tent) it would be much too dangerous otherwise.
This one's almost finished. You can already see the wooden interior and even the decoration in yellow and white.
Hard to believe, that the whole tent will be filled with tables, benches, and thousands of persons, isn't it?
During the two weeks, the Octoberfest attracts around 6 million visitors.
Look at this photo. The English translation for the sign at the entrance is: "Closed because of congestion. Thank you for your understanding."
At the moment, the Käfer Wies'n Schenke is not crowded at all, but it definitely will be.
Sadly, the Oktoberfest has become victim of its popularity: especially on weekends, the beer tents fill up quickly and are then closed. The surest way to get in, is to have a reservation. You need to make your reservations months in advance, otherwise you will be much too late. Nevertheless you can check the official Munich site for information, maybe you're lucky.
Here you can see one of the traditional wooden beer barrels. Unfortunately I was alone when taking the photos, so I couldn't
stand besides it. Then you'd see, that it is almost 2 meters high!
Nowadays most of the breweries use steel barrels, that are even bigger and easier to handle.