White-blue fun at the Wiesn

Mighty cold-blooded horses pull magnificently decorated carriages loaded with beer barrels, with marching bands and traditional costume groups in between. For an hour, the colorful procession with the horse-drawn carriages makes its way from Josephspitalstraße to the famous festival site, the Theresienwiese.

The arrival of the Wiesn hosts every year at the end of September is the traditional starting signal for Munich’s Oktoberfest and right in the middle of it all is the Münchner Kindl with the Lord Mayor of the city on the festival carriage. At 12 noon on the dot, the mayor taps the first Wiesn beer barrel in the Schottenhamel festival tent and when the „O’zapft is“ sounds, the Bavarian Minister President empties the first beer.

Shortly afterwards, countless cannon shots are set off in front of the 18.5 meter high Bavaria statue at the Ruhmeshalle. Then even the last person on the huge grounds orf the world’s largest folk festival knows: the fun can begin! Only now, more than 100 rides, such as the 50-metre-high Ferris wheel, can go into operation and the beer from six Munich breweries is served every second in the roundabout 40 festival tents at 12 o’clock sharp. And that’s usually a lot: 6.5 million liters were drunk by the 7.2 million visitors during 18 Wiesn days at the Oktoberfest 2023. With 1.5 million more visitors than the year before, this is quite an impressive result.

Thousands of visitors festively dressed in dirndls and lederhosen flock to the Wirtsbudenstraße, entire oxen turn on the spit and the smell of typical delicacies such as roast chicken, Steckerlfisch and roasted almonds fills the air. The roller coaster whizzes through the loops, all hell breaks loose on the Devil’s Wheel, the first people try out the treadmill at Tobbagan and Dr. Archibald takes you on a journey through time with VR glasses.

However, if you want to get a place in one of the large festival tents at the start or during the weekends, you need to think about reserving a table early enough and consider which tent suits you best. They all have thousands of seats inside and outside as well as live music, bombastic atmosphere and good food and the choice ranges from the international party crowd in the Hofbräu-Festzelt, for example, to the Fischer Vroni tent, which is a meeting place for the LGBT community on certain days or to the celebrity meeting place of the Käfer Wiesn Schänke. There are also a number of smaller tents that are perfect for families.

My favorite area, though, is the Oide Wiesn (Old Oktoberfest), which took place for the first time in 2010—as part of the Oktoberfest’s 200th anniversary celebrations—in the southern part of the Theresienwiese on a 3.5-hectare fenced-in area. Admission costs 4 euros, and it has been an integral part of the Oktoberfest ever since. It’s a a little bit like in the old days, when the Oktoberfest was not yet the world’s largest folk festival and was on everyone’s lips around the globe. The lovingly maintained historic rides, old throwing booths and the puppet theater exude nostalgic charm and the Motodrom is a breath-taking experience. Courageous steep-wall riders daredevil over the wooden wall on old motorcycles, performing tricks and formation rides. In the idyllic rotating Krinoline carousel, you can take a spin in the sofa gondola to the sound of live brass band music. And in the festival tents such as the Museum, Herzkasperl or Traditionszelt or at the Schützenlisl, the bands don’t play international hits, but Bavarian folk music and the beer is drunk from stone mugs according to old custom – it’s on!

By the way: there are also guided tours at the Oktoberfest. Showmen who have been there for a long time tell funny anecdotes from their job. There are plenty of tipsy incidents here. Info: www.einfach-muenchen.de

And a little etiquette tip at the end: Not every woman wears a dirndl, but if you wear one, you can use the bow to show whether you are interested in flirting or if you would rather enjoy the Oktoberfest undisturbed.

If you wear the bow on the left, it means you’re single. If you wear it in front, you are a virgin and the ribbon tied on the right indicates that you are married.

The Oktoberfest 2026 will take place from 19 September to 4 October, with the nostalgic ‘Oide Wiesn’ including festival tents, historic rides and stalls. All tents at a glance with reservation link to the hosts at: www.oktoberfest.de