Oktoberfest ~ More Than Just Beer!

I love to travel.  I mean, I love, love, love to travel. One of the greatest perks for a writer is traveling to far away, exotic places to conduct research.

My debut novel races through glamorous cities like Rome, Paris, Vienna and Nice.  The main story begins in Munich, which made me think about having my characters attend Oktoberfest, especially since I’ve always wanted to be part of the festivities, too.

Heidi Goldman in the Englischer Garten

I had the good fortune of being accompanied by Ludwig Webel, one of the managers from the tourism department. 

Ludwig Webel,  Heidi Goldman's gracious host, holding her gift.

He was my new friend, guide and walking Wikipedia about all things involving Oktoberfest and Munich’s history.

Oktoberfest.  The very word conjures up all kinds of fantasies and I, too, let my imagination run wild.  Sure, I could have watched YouTube, but I wanted to experience the festival with fresh, unbiased eyes.  Take in the sights, smells and the wonder of it all.

Over six million people from around the world attend Oktoberfest.  The second week is nicknamed Italian Weekend. Munich is bursting at the seams with Italians.  Riding the U-bahn during Italian weekend can be daunting.  Locals are pushed and shoved in overcrowded subway trains by their bon vivant comrades and other Oktoberfest visitors.

While that is the sentiment of many local Müencheners, whose city is invaded for three weeks every year, the rest of the world looks forward to Italian weekend.  These visitors bring color and warmth to cafés, parks and other public places.  And into the beer tents, they bring exuberance.  Throughout the Marienplatz, Munich’s main square, their love, charisma and engaging conversation spills over to every neighboring district.  They talk to strangers passing by or sitting near them in restaurants.  They don’t notice that no one understands Italian.  It doesn’t matter.  Their language and hand gestures seem universal and somehow everyone understands the gist of their exuberant conversation.

The Italians love people.  They love food.  They celebrate life with a joie de vivre that not many cultures could duplicate.  In the beer gardens, you can hear and see loud discussions, hands moving every which way, continuous laughter, conversations and discussions where all the friends talk simultaneously, debating some subject that appears to be as urgent as life and death.  They talk and eat at once.  Forks wave above and around their heads to make a point between mouthfuls of food.

During Oktoberfest, massive steins are held high during Ein Prosit, the famous beer drinking song, boisterous toasts culminating in loud clinking of their heavy steins filled with chilled, foamy brew, toasting their fellow man and most times new friends at adjoining tables to the left and right.  In a large beer tent, like The Schottenhamel, filled with ten thousand people from all over the globe, people begin as strangers and within minutes make new friends at their own table and surrounding ones.

Heidi Goldman in The Schottenhamel Beer Tent ~ Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany

Food is shared and everyone sings in unison to the songs played by the Bavarian band.  People sway back and forth.  Others dance.  A cacophony of music, animated talking and singing reverberate up to the high pitched roof.  All of that is encouraged by vivacious Italians, who sometimes run around from table to table encouraging everyone to participate.

So, how could you not love them and look forward to their participation year after year?  Too much traffic in the city?  An easy trade off!  Their personalities bring a rainbow of color to Munich, transforming the city into a kaleidoscope of vibrant hue, week two of Oktoberfest.

While the Marienplatz is the major artery of Old Town, the Italians are the very heart beat---the pulse of the city during Oktoberfest visits.

The paparazzi love high society tents, like the Hippodrom 

Heidi Goldman at The Hippodrom Beer Tent

and the Käfer Tent, but you must be a somebody to get in.  The rest of us have other choices and my new friend and guide took me to the Schottenhamel tent where all the young, fun loving nobodies of the world would be partying, getting lost in a sea of Italians, Australians, Canadians, Americans and other Europeans who return every year to attend Oktoberfest.

Women walk around town or are seen on the U-bahn wearing dirndls and the men, lederhosen. 

This is traditional clothing of Bavaria.  Müencheners pride themselves in keeping the tradition alive.  When I saw the men and women dressed traditionally, I assumed they were going to Theresienweise to work in the tents, but soon learned that during the three weeks of Oktoberfest, the locals feel free and comfortable wearing their “tracht.”  It’s their way of showing Bavarian pride.

Escada Dirndl

Every year Escada designs a few special limited edition dirndls for Oktoberfest.  American’s often think of the “Brunhilde” type of woman:  fat, buxom and dowdy, wearing a big dress and apron.  Surprisingly, the clothes are youthful and sexy.  I was amazed when I was shopping and noticed a fuchsia suede, mink trimmed busier, laced with crisscross satin ribbon across the bodice.

Escada bustier

At the entrance of Theresienweise, the fair grounds for Oktoberfest, my eyes widened.  Hundreds of thousands of people were walking around.  Children were screaming on wild amusement park rides with parents looking on.  Colorful flags blew in the wind.  People were eating and drinking at booths, laughing, dancing, and meandering toward the tents.

Heidi Goldman at Munich's Oktoberfest ~ Theresienwiese

My guide gave me two choices:  we could walk ahead through the amusement park, or bi-pass the festival and go directly to The Schottenhamel Tent.  I opted to continue walking with the crowd.  I was dying to see all the rides and booths.

It was already twilight and the flashing neon lights of the fair, bursting with color were enticing people to buy tickets for exhilarating roller coaster and amusement rides. 

There were so many people walking in all directions.  Some were racing to a favorite ride, others to a food stall.  As people tried to make their way to the crowded area in front of the beer tents, there was a kind of unspoken dance among the multitude of visitors: forward, back, sideways, shove: forward, back, sideways, push.

I noticed young ladies wearing heart-shaped cookies around their necks decorated with curly-cue icing that read:  Tolle Frau! (Super Woman!)  The other, Komm in Mein Liebeslaube!  (Come to my love nest!) And the third strawberry blonde darling’s cookie read:  Liebe Mich! (Love me!)  Visible messages inviting men to be their lovers.

Heart-shaped cookies for sale

Young girls and older women in their low-cut blouses and frilly white aprons over knee length dresses had an air of understated sensuality.  So much for Brunhilde!  These women looked sexy.  Certainly not the stereotype portrayed in movies.

Naturally Oktoberfest is fun, but the reason for this annual celebration is in honor of Prince Ludwig, who then became King Ludwig 1, and his marriage to Princess Therese.  Their celebration included a horse race, and over the years the celebration grew and grew to what it is today, in Theresienwiese:  Theresa’s meadow.

Observing the rides, the people and the splendid color of the fair was eye candy.  To the left and right were brightly lit tents with neon signs like:  The Floh Circus (Flea Circus), Wilde Mouse Ride and Geister Schloss (The ghost castle ride.)

Geister Schloss-Ghost castle ride

Continuing along the dirt path was the House of Horrors with Frankenstein and his bride tilted on the awning

Frankenstein's House of Horrors

 and across the way was Auf Geht’s Beim Schiechtl which has a gruesome presentation inside on how to behead a human being using the guillotine. Perfect and gory entertainment for adults and children alike.

My guide pointed to the enormous blow-up Prosceccole Contrese bottle on top of their champagne booth which had a photograph of a bearded man.  He explained that the Prosecco was named after mad man King Ludwig 11, who at the age of eighteen inherited the throne from his grandfather, Ludwig 1, when he abdicated his position to be with, Lola Montez, the woman he loved.

As we made our way down the end of the rides near the enormous brightly colored Ferris wheel, my guide pointed, “Look over there, to the right.  There’s The Schottenhamel Tent!” 

Heidi Goldman at The Schottenhamel Beer Tent

Without waiting for a response, he said, “Follow me and stay close.”

People swarmed the doors, pushing and shoving to get in.  Times Square in Manhattan is crazy, but this was sheer lunacy topped with a certain kind of frenetic energy.  People without reservations were determined to get into the tent one way or another.  My guide grabbed my arm and I squeezed in between the masses of people until we finally reached the side entrance of the tent.  With one more push, like giving birth, arms from out of nowhere grabbed and yanked us into the cavernous tent.  The door slammed behind all the loud, impatient party go-ers, who would continue to wait outside, desperate to get in.

We stumbled forward into the tent and headed for the upstairs balcony that over-looked ten thousand raucous, fun-loving attendees.  The room glowed golden.  Around the circumference of the room were food stalls, offering Bavarian delicacies:  Kasse, Speisen-Ausgabe, Schweinbraten and Hendl.  And on the raised platform in the center were Oktoberfest musicians playing, Hey Baby! While the crowd from non-English speaking countries and English speaking countries, sang the lyrics perfectly.

Unfortunately, I can’t sing on key, so I lip-synced the entire song with gusto.

I looked over the railing in disbelief.  It looked like a Josef von Sternberg production---a visual extravaganza from the high vantage point above the crowd.  Like the movie, The Devil is a Woman, where he used the horror vacui technique, every space on the big screen just like this Oktoberfest tent, was completely filled. 

Ten thousand people were singing in unison and dancing with strangers, who would soon become close companions before night’s end or at least by the next song.

After we were seated in a booth away from the railing, the oom-pah band began to play, YMCA.  All the Europeans, Australians, Canadians, South Americans suddenly stood up at their seat, in the aisle and on the tables, singing the lyrics and doing the arm gestures to the noted song.  I was shocked to hear American music in a German beer tent.

By the end of the song, a roar of applause filled the tent drowning out the beginning of New York, New York, the next selection.  All that was missing was Frank Sinatra!  The waitress came by with large pretzels. I had to have one and then we ordered two beers, rotisserie chicken and boiled potatoes.

Heidi Goldman holding Bavarian Pretzel

The tent was a vision.  Enormous green leafy wreaths trimmed with small light bulbs hung low from the ceiling, giving a warm amber glow to the cavernous room.   People from all over the world meandered through the aisles singing, swaying, and dancing with strangers.

Waitresses carrying six enormous beer steins in each hand walked carefully through crowds of people delivering the choice beverage of Bavaria to happy patrons.

Suddenly the Bavarian band played Ein Prosit.  The crowd roared.  I looked at my guide, confused.  He whispered loudly, “It’s mandatory for us to drink when you hear that song!”

“Far be it from me to break the rules!” I said, taking a gulp of the cold brew.

Heidi Goldman with Ludwig Webel, her gracious host

“When you hear this song, and you will all night long, everyone at the table toasts each other and then we take a large sip of beer.”

The booth to our right was filled with ten boisterous Italian men who flirted with me incessantly. 

Heidi Goldman's new Italian friends at Oktoberfest in Munich

They leaned into our booth and initiated toasts with me and the others at the table.  One of them handed me a tooth pick with a piece of cheese and salami.  How could you not love a guy who feeds you?

Two playful Italians put on eye glasses trimmed with blinking lights and swayed in each other’s arms to the music.  The most handsome man passed his pair to me and encouraged me to dance. 

Heidi Goldman dancing with fun glasses in Schottenhamel Tent ~ Oktoberfest

Having had a couple of beers, I stood up, arms swaying above my head and shook my body to the rhythm of Mick Jagger’s,  I Can’t Get No Satisfaction. 

The Italians continued talking simultaneously, arms gesturing wildly as the roar of the crowd ebbed and flowed with the music. 

The timbre rose to a feverish pitch.

At the end of the evening, the fairground was even more beautiful with bright lights lining the beer tents.

If it wasn’t for the photos and videos, I’d never believe I really attended Oktoberfest.  Who knew I’d have so much fun conducting research for my novel, but I’d also get a lesson in history, beer, and a little bit of Italy while attending Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.

Heidi Goldman ~ "Auf Wiedersehen!"