Oktoberfest Guide: How to Crash the World's Largest Party

Over 6 million people visit Munich, Germany, annually for Oktoberfest. This celebration of Bavarian beer and culture has been dubbed the world's largest party based on attendance alone. If you're planning to attend, this Oktoberfest guide will help you make the most of your experience.

Held annually since 1810, the event is known locally as "Wiesen" after the fairgrounds where it is held. When I decided to attend the blogging conference in Costa Brava, Spain, this past September, it was a no-brainer to add a trip to Munich afterward. I began asking questions the week before I arrived. This post is a culmination of the advice I received and my observations.

Oktoberfest Tips

Accommodation: Planning vs. Just Showing Up

There are two distinct approaches to attending Oktoberfest. You can plan everything months to a year in advance or show up and see what happens at the last minute. Both strategies have advantages and disadvantages.

Reserving accommodation at a hotel or hostel and buying tickets to the beer tents months in advance ensures you have more control over your experience. However, it also locks you into those plans because you start making financial and vacation commitments early on.

On the flip side, playing it by ear allows you greater flexibility to change your plans at the last minute should you decide to alter your visit dates or bail out altogether. Whichever approach you prefer will lead you to the same park in Munich with tens of thousands of other partygoers on any given day.

My Experience

I connected with one of my first friends from Medellin, a German couchsurfer, with whom I shared an apartment for three months in 2009. While he was still traveling, his younger brother was living in Munich. Score!

I contacted Maxi, who welcomed me to stay with him for the Oktoberfest. With free accommodation secured, I confirmed my plans and bought a $170 flight from Barcelona on Vueling.

To save money on accommodation, try to find a place to stay through Couchsurfing, or use my approach above to find a host through your network of friends. Alternatively, if you can't find a room within your budget, you can stay outside Munich and commute to the party by train.

How To Dress, Bavarian Style

To help set the mood, many Germans dress up in traditional Bavarian clothes. The men wear lederhosen, those green or tan deerskin shorts you see the Von Trapp kids wearing in The Sound of Music. Button-down shirts are either white or have a colorful checkered pattern. Brown shoes or boots are worn, along with thick wool socks.

Women wear dirndls, a cute outfit of peasant origins with a bodice, blouse, skirt, and apron. Typically worn with stockings and flat shoes, some ladies dress them by wearing high heels. An adequately fitted dirndl emphasizes a woman's waist and bust. I also heard women can get special bras to accentuate their cleavage further.

Cheap, single-use lederhosen or dirndls will cost at least $130 (100 euros), while better-quality, custom-tailored outfits can cost $500 or more.

It's common for these outfits to be passed down through the generations. I met one guy in the beer tent whose lederhosen was 70 years old, passed down to him from his grandfather. The higher quality lederhosen of yesteryear is thicker than the modern versions.

My Experience

I was advised early on to invest in lederhosen lest I be the only guy dressed in civilian clothes. But upon arriving in Munich, I was too tired to bother and didn't want to spend the money on an outfit I'd only wear for a few hours.

During my first walk through Oktoberfest, I noticed many people, both men and women, German and foreign, in regular clothes. Of course, there were many people in lederhosen and dirndls, too, but if you wear regular clothes, you'll by no means be the only one.

Maxi lent me one of his white shirts the second time I went, which made me feel a little more Bavarian for the night. My advice? Invest in a dirndl or lederhosen if you want fun photos as a souvenir or a future Halloween costume.

Outside the Beer Tents: Park and Rides

Oktoberfest is held at Theresienwiese, a gigantic fairground 15 minutes away from the city center (Marienplatz) and easily accessible via several subway stops.

The grounds are mostly a giant amusement park, with several roller coasters, a huge Ferris wheel, and enough rides that spin you around to make anyone dizzy just from watching. You pay for the rides individually, with some costing as much as a liter of beer in the tents ($10 to $12).

Many German food shops also serve pastries, pretzels, and traditional sweets. Among the rides and chaos are 14 large beer tents, each a party unto itself.

If the weather is clear, being outside can be more fun. However, if it's overcast or raining, it can be a miserable experience unless you're sitting in one of the beer tents. Ideally, you'll stay in Munich for several days to skip the days with bad weather.

My Experience

During my first walk through the grounds on a Saturday afternoon, the crowds were thick, and walking at an average pace wasn't always possible. Then, it began to rain, and I retreated to the subway.

I wasn't interested in the rides but hoped to take more photos and enjoy the atmosphere a bit longer. To give you an idea of the food costs, five chocolate-covered strawberries cost me $5.

Inside the Beer Tents

The tents, and I use that term loosely because they're very stable, solid structures and are sponsored by various beer companies in Munich.

You don't need a reservation to enter a tent, just as you don't need a ticket to enter the fairgrounds; however, it can be challenging to find a seat during peak days and hours (evenings and weekends).

If you want to plan ahead, you can reserve tickets through the individual tents' websites. As a bonus, reserving tickets in advance may earn you discount coupons for beer and food.

I was happy to find the tents are smoke-free, allowing everyone to breathe easily and leave without smelling like an ashtray at night's end.

The rotisserie chicken came highly recommended, and when I got my paws on it, I found out why. It's lives up to the hype!

Of course, each tent has its own menu and beers. However, based on its interior decor, live band, and the type of people it attracts, each tent also has its own personality.

For example, the Käfer's Wiesn-Schänke tent attracts a wealthy and famous clientele, while Hofbräu-Festzelt, the largest tent, draws many Americans.

Fun Fact: The Hofbräu-Festzelt can hold about 10,000 people and serves 550,000 liters of beer and 70,000 half-chickens during the 16-day Oktoberfest.

My Experience

Speaking of Hofbräu-Festzelt, this is the tent where Maxi and I met members of his orchestra, who had reserved a few tables for the night. We walked right in around 6 PM on a Sunday and found them in a numbered room almost immediately.

Squeezing into the middle of a table, I was soon amongst a large group of musically talented Bavarians. I could chat a bit with Maxi and the conductor, who also spoke a little English.

Because getting in and out of the tables required climbing on the benches, I made it a point not to use the bathroom until we returned to his apartment. Maxi later told me the restrooms were on the exact opposite end of the tent from us. Thankfully, I didn't have to bother trekking there.

The servers were friendly. However, they may not return to serve you if you don't tip them. Tips are usually about a dollar, and the beers are rounded to the nearest euro.

Fun Fact: According to Maxi, a waitress in a good location can earn $25,800 (or 20,000 euros) during the festival. They make money from tips and beer sales.

I noticed other working women in dirndls walking the aisles, selling giant pretzels and even roses (there's always someone selling roses, isn't there?).

The live band switched from playing traditional Bavarian tunes to rock, pop, and Top 40 songs as the evening wore on. I distinctly recall "YMCA" by the Village People going over well with the crowd. The rock and pop music, in English, for the most part, got the crowd standing up on their benches dancing.

Oktoberfest Beer

Oktoberfest is all about beer, and not just any beer can carry the Oktoberfest label. Bavarians take this topic seriously. Only the large breweries based in Munich that brew beer during the Oktoberfest season can call it Oktoberfest beer.

At around 6% alcohol, it's twice as potent as the average American beer. And because it's served in 1-liter glass mugs, you're getting about 33 ounces per serving (or close to three times the volume of a typical 12-ounce American beer). Do the math, and you'll see it's no surprise why the beer has a reputation for being exceptionally strong.

That said, the Bavarians grow up drinking beer from a young age. The minimum age for beer and wine is just 16 in Germany (and 18 for liquor). While festive, the whole scene inside the tent was not nearly as messy as your typical college frat party. Prost (cheers in German) to that!

My Experience

Another tip I received before arriving in Munich was to drink the beer slowly. I followed this one, consuming just two mugs of Oktoberfest beer over about five hours. Each beer cost 9.35 euros, or about $12, which we rounded to 10 euros with tip (or close to $13).

The last call was around 10 PM, as the band played its last songs for the night. The staff began cleaning up by 10:30 PM. I felt good as we exited the tent, but it wasn't until we got back to Maxi's apartment and I lay down that I realized how much of an effect the beer was having on me.

How To Crash Oktoberfest in 10 Simple Steps

1. Decide you want to go.

2. Book a hotel or hostel months in advance, or ask your friends and extended network for a person you can stay with in Munich.

3. Book your flight(s).

4. As the date draws near, begin putting the word out via social media of your attendance. See who responds, and refine your plans accordingly.

5. Arrive in Munich and settle into your accommodation.

6. (Optional) Buy your traditional Bavarian outfit: lederhosen for men and dirndls for women.

7. Withdraw cash from the ATM per your appetite for beer, chicken, and roller coasters (not necessarily in that order).

8. Take the subway to one of the stops near Theresienwiese or walk from Marienplatz if you stay downtown.

9. Ride the rides and eat the food. Try not to puke on anyone.

10. Bust into a tent, with or without a reservation, and DRINK THE BEER!

For more information, check out the official Oktoberfest website, which offers information in English.