A group of Jacobs University students had a blast at Munich's annual Oktoberfest.

Fifteen friends split in three different cars set out on a Friday for their destination in southern Germany, Munich, with one thing in mind: Oktoberfest!  The world’s biggest fair was happening just eight hours driving away – we wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Oktoberfest is the fair that embodies the traditions and culture of Bavaria. People from all around the world, roughly 6 million per year, come to Munich to experience the people, music, food, culture, and of course, the beer. There are only six breweries allowed to have tents and sell their beer at Oktoberfest because they are the only beers brewed in Munich. Not even other Bavarian breweries can host a tent. 

As you ride the escalators up from the S-bahn station up to the Weis’n, where the festival is held, you are surrounded by people of all nationalities, ethnicities, and ages. The air is filled with the scent of roasted almonds, fresh baked pretzels, and roasting meat of all kinds. By midday the ground is covered by broken bottles, spilled beer, and the occasional evidence of someone who started drinking a bit too early. However, when you go early in the morning when the tents are just opening, the fairgrounds have been swept clean and hosed down. The food booths are rolling up their covers and setting out their wares. It seems a bit too pristine for a place that will shortly become overflowing with the inebriated. 

The best advice I can give you about getting into a tent: get a reservation or get their early. Or else you’ll have to try your luck at multiple tents, wait in line for hours, and probably end up standing up in your last choice-tent. 
   

When you’ve conquered the waiting in line or chatting with the security guard to let you in, the pay-off is definitely worth the effort.  Your immediate table or group of friends is welcomed into the group of friends that is the patrons of the tent.  Tables sing with each other from 10 tables away, everyone sings when the band starts to play, your new best friend is the person standing next to you in line for the bathroom who has to go just as badly as you.
   

Weird coincidences also bring people the sense of camaraderie.  I chased down a middle-aged American woman in the bathroom because she had taken a picture of our group the night before in downtown Munich.  Later, at the table, there was a big cheer “for Kathy!”  When, a friend and I decided to use the men’s restroom because the line was going faster, I met a man from my home state of Wisconsin whose brother went to the university in my hometown.  An Australian woman and I always found ourselves ordering at the same time (and consequently in line for the restroom at the same time too). These are the moments and the memories that will stick with me forever about Oktoberfest.
   

After countless liters of beer, the best Käsespätzle of my life, two pretzels, very little sleep, numerous new friends and connections all over the world, and an amazing weekend with my close friends, I can safely say that Oktoberfest is an amazing experience and one that I would recommend to anyone who wants to discover the true meaning of being Bavarian – or just wants to have a great time.

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