Oktoberfest 2012

Mayor Ude with the first beer jug

“O’zapft is!” You won’t find this phrase in your dictionary: It is Bavarian for ‘es ist angezapft’ and means that someone has hammered a tap in a beer barrel.

It is also the phrase the mayor of Munich shouts when he officially opens the world-famous Oktoberfest with a traditional barrel-tapping ritual. So on the 22^nd of September 2012 at 12 noon Christian Ude took two strikes to tap the barrel, pulled the first litre of beer and could proclaim to the cheering crowd “O’zapft is!”

click here for a link to a 360 degree foto of the tapping

In a beer tent - many women wear these traditional dirndl dresses

For this 179^th edition of the Oktoberfest organisers expect over 6 million visitors from Germany and all over the world to come to Munich to eat, drink and be merry.

The first Oktoberfest celebrated the royal wedding between Crown prince Ludwig of Bavaria and his Saxon bride princess Therese in 1810. On a huge meadow in Munich (named 'Theresienwiese' or 'Wiesn' after the bride) citizens could enjoy horse racing, beer, food and music. Since then, the anniversary was celebrated every year, only interrupted by war times.

A popular part of the festivities are street parades with decorated brewery carts, marching brass bands and lots of people in traditional costumes. Food specialities include roast oxen, whole spit roast chicken, sausages, Brezeln and Sauerkraut (pickled cabbage). Very famous are the beer tents, with live music and one-litre-beer jugs called a ‘Maß’. Strong waitresses carry up to seven or eight of these massive beer jugs through the crowd!  

German celebrities love the Oktoberfest, and attend wearing traditional clothes like Lederhosen and Dirndl dress, like Bastian Schweinsteiger and his partner. click here to see different traditional Lederhosen.
 

 images copyright by oktoberfes

Young and old can enjoy the rides on the fair ground of the Oktoberfest, like the ‘Münchner Rutsch'n’, a 55 metre long slide, and the Olympia Looping rollercoaster. Every Tuesday is ‘Familientag’ with special reductions on rides and food stalls. While a Maß of beer costs around 9,30 Euros this year, the entry to the fair ground is always free!

roast Hendl

Last year during the two week event the 6.9 million visitors drank 7.9 millions of litres of beer and ate more that 522.000 chickens, almost 125.000 sausages and 118 whole oxen!

What a party…

For more information in German or English and lots more images and webcams go to

click here to see all the rides

www.oktoberfest.de