The Hofbrau-Festzelt is the biggest beer-tent at the Munich’s Oktoberfest. The tent is massive measuring 82 metres long, 62 metres wide and having a capacity of 9992 people within its floor, balconies and beergarden. And then theres the back of house areas where with kitchens and beer storage. To give you some idea of the massage kitchen it can cook 828 roast chickens at one time. Over 280 staff are required to work in the tent.
Over the 16 days of this years festival it is expected the HB tent alone will serve over half a million litres of ice cold HB beer, 70,000 1/2 chickens, 5500 pork roasts 2800 spare ribs and over 8500 sausages.
The construction program this year was massive the first trucks arrived at the Thersienwiese in on July 15 and it has taken over 9 weeks to complete, the beautiful interior fit out has taken nearly 7 weeks.
The Hippodrom was first seen at Oktoberfest in 1902 and since then has become one of the most popular tents. This tent was the first to offer amusement and it was in the form of horse rides. There were 25 horses which carried visitors around a track. Today the real horses have dissapeared but their legacy remains with beautifuly decorated horse models hanging from the ceiling of this huge tent. The tent dosent only offer great beer and fine German food it has a champange bar. This bar is very popular with the ‘Beautiful People’ set of Germany and quiet often famous film and television stars are seen enjoying themselves at the bar.
Armbrustschutzenzelt has been a major tent at Munich’s Oktoberfest since 1895. The name in English translates to ”Crossbow Shooters Tent”, and thats exactly what goes on in this tent yes thousands of beer drinkers and cross bows. It sounds like a dangerous mix but no its perfectly safe, the crossbows fire foam rubber arrows and they are in a special area away from the crowd. The Armbrustschutzen is also famous for its tasty roast pig knuckles and of course its golden fresh Paulaner beer. The tent houses 5800 and another 1800 can fit in the outside beer garden. Work begins in the middle of July to build this massive tent and get it ready for the festival.
Munich’s Oktoberfest starts today with the tapping of the barrel by the Lord Mayor and the parade to the Oktoberfest Grounds. This year over 6000000 (6 million) people will rock up at the festival for a beer, giant pretzel, sausage or ginger bread. The festival is not only about eating and drinking it is a full on fair with huge carnival rides and a real party atmosphere. Check out our special YouTube video to see what some of the sights of last years Oktoberfest.
Good to see the Germans have got good taste. Last year the controversial celebrity gatecrashed the Munich festival in a very tacky gold traditional Bavarian dress to promote some sort of canned wine. Organisers and the public were not impressed and have banned celebrity promotions from this years festival in the wake of her stunt. Some people thought it was a shame they didn’t drown her in weissbier, but why waste perfectly good beer.
The countdown is on to the climax of months of planning and preperation for the 2007 Oktoberfest in Munich Germany. It’s less than three hours till the Lord Mayor of Munich taps the first keg and declares “O’zapft is!” (Bavarian: “It’s tapped!”). the world’s biggest folk festival open for another year. Over the next 16 days over 6 million people will drink a third of Munich’s yearly beer intake in the grounds of the Theresenwiese.
Only local Munich breweries serve beer at the festival and many serve a special Oktoberfest brew for the occasion, this beer is slightly darker and a bit stronger than their normal brews and is in a one-liter glass tankard called a Maß.
There are 14 large tents including The Hippodrom, Armbrustschützenzelt, Hofbräu Festzelt, Hacker-Festzelt, Schottenhamel, Winzerer Fähndl, Schützen-Festzelt, Käfers Wiesn Schänke, Weinzelt, Löwenbräu-Festhalle, Bräurosl, Augustiner-Festhalle, Ochsenbraterei and Fischer Vroni plus many smaller tents. Some of these larger tents are able to seat 4 – 5000 people in one sitting.
Over the festival Hoppsy will have several reports live from the 2007 Oktoberfest.
