A server heads to the tables with two fists full of the one-liter beer mugs the Oktoberfest is famous for. Beer prices this year range from 7.80 to 8.30 euros. (Photo by Michael Abrams/S&S)
Beer will be flowing and music playing for one more weekend at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.
So if you want to visit what claims to be the world’s largest folk festival and beer bash, this is your last chance.
Oktoberfest started as a weeklong royal wedding celebration ending with a horse race in October 1810. Now it lasts for two weeks and ends on the first weekend of October, with the only race being the one to the tables in the beer tents.
Inside the huge tents — some hold more than 8,000 people — brass bands oompah their way through Bavarian drinking songs. Friends and strangers, locals and foreigners toast one another with one-liter beer mugs. They sing along with the bands and dance on the benches as servers, bearing fists full of beer mugs and trays full of food, jockey their way through the madness.
Expect the tents to be full. Friday is a German holiday, and organizers expect especially heavy crowds Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.
Unfortunately, when the tents are full, big, beefy bouncers keep guests from entering. When this happens, you usually can find a seat in the beer gardens surrounding the big tents. Some have music piped outside, but you might not be able to hear it with all the rowdy revelers standing on the benches singing their own songs.
Oktoberfest is not just about beer. There is a huge assortment of amusement rides. Some are as mundane as bumper cars and a Ferris wheel, but there are also two roller coasters and other thrill rides, such as the Cyber Space or the Star Flyer, a swing carousel that lifts riders more than 100 feet above the fest.
Food is also a big part of the fest. It is served in and outside the tents, and favorites are half-chickens, ham hocks, duck, ox, big pretzels and the ubiquitous sausage.
If you are up for partying this weekend, here are some things you might want to know:
• If you drive to Munich, there is no parking around the fest area, and your car will be towed if you park illegally.
• If you are staying at a hotel, leave your car there and take the subway. Lines U3, U4, U5 and U6 all stop at the Theresienwiese, the festival grounds.
• Hotels are pretty booked up during Oktoberfest, but it is usually possible to find something. Check the Munich city Web site at www.munich.de for accommodations or surf the Web.
• The Rhein Neckar USO, Kaiserslautern Outdoor Recreation and Ramstein RTT Travel are among groups offering bus trips to Oktoberfest, and RTT has tickets for the Oktoberfest party train.
• The Theresienwiese is in walking distance from Munichs main train station, where trains from all over Europe arrive.
• The tents open at 9 a.m. this weekend, and beer is served until 10:30 p.m. A liter mug of beer, a Maß, costs between 7.80 and 8.30 euros this year.
All the fun ends at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, when the call goes though the tents: "Aus is!"
If you can’t make it this year, mark your calendar for the next Oktoberfest, Sept. 19 to Oct. 4, 2009.