For this, I would wear lederhosen
Or possibly even a dirndl. I went to take a look at Oktoberfest, and I knew it was going to be large, but noone had warned me that it would be *huge*.
The beer tents are tents in about the same way the Titanic was a boat. There are outlying houses around them that would each house a sizable restaurant or two, but they were utterly dwarfed by the behemoth "tents" behind them. Some of them simple, some (possibly the older breweries?) made up to look like giant log houses or over-size castles, complete with balconies full of men in colorful shirts and lederhosen, of course.
Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get into any of them, since not only were the lines long, most of them were so full they didn't let anybody in anyway! Besides, I brought my camera and flash (pictures will be up once I have power on my laptop), so any drinking would have been impractical.
Instead, I divided my time between taking pictures, enjoying all the pretty mädchen in dirndl, and looking at all the things going on around the "tents". Besides the drinking, Oktoberfest is also the biggest carnival/tivoli I've ever been to. Any amusement park item you can think of is there, and then some. Many of them in oversize. Everywhere there are booths selling lebkuchen in heart shapes, roasted almonds, souvenirs, and meat in a gazillion forms. Sights, sounds and smells everywhere entice you to eat, drink and play, at a levels that baffles my little Danish mind.
All this can of course only work because people come here in droves. Nay, in herds. Or actually hordes, plural, is the fitting word here. Already in the U-bahn you can tell it will be crowded. Two good tricks for avoiding being squished are to go to the center of the platform instead of staying at the end like most, and to wait for the train coming one minute later so fewer people have time to get to the platform. Even so, there is little likelihood of being able to move, let alone sit, in the train. Luckily, the trip is short, since the "wiesn" where the whole thing is held was right outside the city when it started 200 years ago, so now it's one U-bahn stop from the Hauptbahnhof.
Once off the train, you're gently guided by the police (or the landeswehr or something) outwards as quickly as you can. Which is not very quickly, in fact the next train arrived before I got to the stairs. The crowd at this point is probably about 25% in proper garb (lederhosen/dirndl as appropriate), which makes it very enjoyable and gives an air of the Bavarians really being proud of their roots.
Getting around once you're there is an exercise in crowd dynamics. There are "main streets" that the shops and amusements face onto, and there are "back streets" with nothing happening. The back streets are as crowded as a shopping street on a good day. The main streets are worse. There are lanes of people going either way, sometimes dissolving into pedestrian traffic jams, especially at the crossings. The best way to cross a lane if coming from the opposite direction is to follow the lane for a bit. A clear space for taking photos is impossible to find, but if you stand in the "shadow" of a shop, you can at least avoid being constantly jostled. It's anyone's guess if my DW would go into panic from the crowds or go hyper from all the goings-on. Possibly both.
Next year, I will have an apartment here, and whoever calls dips first will have a way to solve the biggest problem of going to Oktoberfest: finding an affordable place to stay.
Long story short: I did a "scouting tour" of Oktoberfest without actually trying anything, but will certainly go back there tomorrow without my camera and see if I can make it into a "tent".
The beer tents are tents in about the same way the Titanic was a boat. There are outlying houses around them that would each house a sizable restaurant or two, but they were utterly dwarfed by the behemoth "tents" behind them. Some of them simple, some (possibly the older breweries?) made up to look like giant log houses or over-size castles, complete with balconies full of men in colorful shirts and lederhosen, of course.
Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get into any of them, since not only were the lines long, most of them were so full they didn't let anybody in anyway! Besides, I brought my camera and flash (pictures will be up once I have power on my laptop), so any drinking would have been impractical.
Instead, I divided my time between taking pictures, enjoying all the pretty mädchen in dirndl, and looking at all the things going on around the "tents". Besides the drinking, Oktoberfest is also the biggest carnival/tivoli I've ever been to. Any amusement park item you can think of is there, and then some. Many of them in oversize. Everywhere there are booths selling lebkuchen in heart shapes, roasted almonds, souvenirs, and meat in a gazillion forms. Sights, sounds and smells everywhere entice you to eat, drink and play, at a levels that baffles my little Danish mind.
All this can of course only work because people come here in droves. Nay, in herds. Or actually hordes, plural, is the fitting word here. Already in the U-bahn you can tell it will be crowded. Two good tricks for avoiding being squished are to go to the center of the platform instead of staying at the end like most, and to wait for the train coming one minute later so fewer people have time to get to the platform. Even so, there is little likelihood of being able to move, let alone sit, in the train. Luckily, the trip is short, since the "wiesn" where the whole thing is held was right outside the city when it started 200 years ago, so now it's one U-bahn stop from the Hauptbahnhof.
Once off the train, you're gently guided by the police (or the landeswehr or something) outwards as quickly as you can. Which is not very quickly, in fact the next train arrived before I got to the stairs. The crowd at this point is probably about 25% in proper garb (lederhosen/dirndl as appropriate), which makes it very enjoyable and gives an air of the Bavarians really being proud of their roots.
Getting around once you're there is an exercise in crowd dynamics. There are "main streets" that the shops and amusements face onto, and there are "back streets" with nothing happening. The back streets are as crowded as a shopping street on a good day. The main streets are worse. There are lanes of people going either way, sometimes dissolving into pedestrian traffic jams, especially at the crossings. The best way to cross a lane if coming from the opposite direction is to follow the lane for a bit. A clear space for taking photos is impossible to find, but if you stand in the "shadow" of a shop, you can at least avoid being constantly jostled. It's anyone's guess if my DW would go into panic from the crowds or go hyper from all the goings-on. Possibly both.
Next year, I will have an apartment here, and whoever calls dips first will have a way to solve the biggest problem of going to Oktoberfest: finding an affordable place to stay.
Long story short: I did a "scouting tour" of Oktoberfest without actually trying anything, but will certainly go back there tomorrow without my camera and see if I can make it into a "tent".