Oktoberfest Fischer-Vroni tent
Taska & I at Oktoberfest. We were in Fischer-Vroni one of the smaller of the 12 Oktoberfest tents (only sits 2,695, Hoefbraeu Festzelt sits 10,000). Beers are served in glasses called a Maß. Which literally translaes as a "measure" but it is 1L of beer served in Austrian made glasses, with the top line being 1L and room for head on top of it, there are 4 rows of circles decorating the glass that also measure out every .25L.
In the evening most tents fill up and you need to have tickets to get in and get a seat. Pretty much all the seats are sold out by around February, though there is a thriving re-sale market. With that said you can wait in line and get into tents in the evening, but it can be hard to find seats together if you have a reasonable sized party. Tickets are a table assignment, 2xcoupons for beer, and 1x20 Euro food gift certificate (no change available).
What do people do? Well they drink of course, they also dance to the Music played by a live band. Every tent has a band though they do play different music.
People also wear a type of costume called "Tract". but Tracht just means "traditional clothing" they do call Saris and Kimonos Tract as well. The difference is that the "Tract" worn in Bavaria is not just tradional, but a whole seperate fashion. In most parts of Gemany the tradition of wearing a regional clothing has disapeared. But in Bavaria 1884 a club was formed to formalize the costume of Bavaria and in many respects created a new fashion. This is the Lederhosen and Dirndels that you see today. There are fashion from year to year (and fashion shows to show of new styles), but people from outside of Bavaria (even within Germany) just view it as party clothing. It is in some way anlagous to country-western dress, which takes its roots from Old West wear and farm cloths, but is completly impractical for such purposes and is mostly party wear.
I find it funny that I have met a number of Munich natives who cannot bring themselves to wear Dirdles or Lederhosen because they think of it as conservitive and old fashioned. When you leave the city and go to smaller communities on Sundays you can see lots of people that wear versions of it as Sunday "Dress" or "Formal" wear and go to church in it. There is a whole variet with these nice Linen or Wool suit jackets for the men that do look a bit more formal.
Oktoberfest is really just a fok festival kind of like a state fair (but with less emphasis on livestock). It is actually a commemoration of the wedding of Prince Ludwig and Therese of Saxe-Hilburghausen in 1810. The tents were initially created to be more Sporting and Olympic themed. It has lots of rides and booths.
Oktoberfest is not the only wedding commerative festival I have been to in Bavaria. The Landshuterhochzeit is every several years and the whole town plays different roles in recreation of a wedding parade and festival.
The music is a funny mix of tradional German, Bavarian, Austrian Folk Music, with Schlager and American Country Fried-Rock and some staight up country. Some of English pop songs to make into the common repotoire include: "Achy Breaky Heart", "Sweet Home Alabama" (which half the time the singer cannot pronounce Alabama correctly because they shorten the "a" and the and they don't like the nasel "a" from "at" and prefer something that sounds more like the "o" in "Tom"), "We are the Champions", and "Take me home Country roads"
some of the rides/entertainments like the "Der Teufelrad" (The Devil's Wheel) date back to 1910
technorati tags:Oktoberfest, München, Munich
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