{"id":24000,"date":"2017-09-20T13:05:10","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T18:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=24000"},"modified":"2021-08-31T13:50:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T18:50:28","slug":"oktoberfest-dos-and-donts-from-an-american-first-timer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/oktoberfest-dos-and-donts-from-an-american-first-timer\/","title":{"rendered":"Oktoberfest Do’s and Dont’s From An American First-Timer"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\nL<\/span>ast year I was lucky enough to spend a day on the Theresienwiese<\/em>, the home to Munich’s Oktoberfest and destination of tens of thousands of beer drinkers every September. Before our trip, I did endless amounts of research to try and know what I was getting into. Would we be able to get a table? What would we be spending? Would we survive? Or would we find it (gasp) overrated?<\/p>\n I took notes throughout the day, punctuated by many large mass steins of fest bier, roast chicken, pretzels, and more beer. Here’s what I came away with in terms of on-the-ground knowledge and some recommendations of what to expect if it’s your first time at the Wiesn.<\/p>\n I can only speak to our experience here — we went midday on a Wednesday and I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to do so again. The crowds were manageable, relatively in control of themselves, and ran the gamut from kids to the elderly and everything in between. Any concerns about not being able to actually hang out in a tent and drink a ton of beer for a true Oktoberfest experience were happily and quickly assuaged. Which leads me to…<\/p>\n There’s lots of handwringing on the many Oktoberfest sites I saw saying you’ll be lucky to get a table inside the tents at any<\/em> time, and if you do get seated hang on for as long as you can as you’re unlikely to get another. Thanks to our midday arrival and general timing, we were able to get seated and served at not one, not two but three<\/em> different tents, as well as a few beer gardens outside the tents.<\/p>\n As I mentioned above, that’s our experience during a midweek afternoon. The evening is of course highly<\/em> unlikely to be the same — we tried to squeeze in one last tent at around 5ish and found some very stern gents asking us if we had a reservation, and since we didn’t, we were quickly shuffled out. When we left the festival grounds around sundown, I could feel the energy changing from relaxed-and-groovy day drinking to lets-get-wasted mode. I prefer day.<\/p>\n Even if you don’t get a table, if you’re there early enough in the day, you can just walk right into any them, take in the scene, get a few pictures, enjoy some music, and then walk right back out — into a beer garden, where you’ll certainly be able to be served. You’ll get a beer, don’t worry.<\/p>\n
\nDO: Get here early. And on a weekday.<\/h4>\n
DON’T: Worry too much about getting a table (assuming you got here early).<\/h4>\n