OpenMI Workshop Experiences with OpenMI

27th - 29th September 2005 Munich, Germany

Visit to the Oktoberfest

The Munich Oktoberfest is perhaps Europe’s greatest popular Festival. In fact, it attracts so many visitors from abroad that it can be truly described as a Festival of Nations. It will last 17 days and it is expected that millions of visitors from Germany and other parts of the world will gather there.

Strong, dark “Wies`n” beer is held in store by the large Munich breweries for this special occasion, as experience shows that during these 17 days of merry-making about one million fried “bangers”, over half a million roast chickens, some 78.000 roast knuckles of pork and countless portions of succulent meat from 53 roast oxen have to be washed down by about 9 million litre of that strong beer.
Many special trains of the German Federal Railway bring in visitors from Germany’s main towns and also from abroad. Thousands of coaches run special trips to the “Wies`n”, to give the October Festival its traditional popular name.

Besides the seven beer palaces set up by the large breweries, with their bands of musicians, the visitors can watch oxen being roasted on the spit, the Fischer-Vroni with a famous variety of Bavarian river fish, the hippodrome, the crossbowmen’s marquee and the marksmen’s marquee. There are special places where chickens are roasted, snack bars, fried shops and coffee house marquees. There are shooting booths and some 50 fair-ground establishments, many roundabouts swing and side-shows, pony-riding rings and other entertainments and facilities reserved exclusively for children. The roads through the “Wies`n” total 3 to 4 miles in length.

The October Festival originated 185 year ago. Horsesraces and other popular entertainments were to celebrate the wedding of the Crown Prince who later became King Ludwig I of Bavaria and married Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen on the 17 October 1810.

The enormous fair grounds have been called “Theresienwiese” after the Princess Therese. Soon the Harvest Festival was celebrated at about the same time and from this sprang the Central Agricultural Show.

The October Festival has only been interrupted during wartime years. As Bavaria’s national festival it is known throughout the whole world and this year all roads again lead to the “Wies`n”. In 2003 6.3 Million people visited the Oktoberfest in Munich and consumed more than 6.2 Million litres of beer.

[Adapted from http://www.germany-tourism.co.uk/pages/event_highlights_943.htm]

As the OpenMI Workshop will take place during the Oktoberfest, HarmonIT partners and guests will have a chance to visit the Oktoberfest and enjoy the beer and local specialties on Wednesday September 28th, 4.30pm. The visit includes two big beers and a portion of chicken.

You can find more about the Oktoberfest by visiting http://www.oktoberfest.de/en/.