Drink up Oktoberfest is over… and only three days into the 10th month of the year.
So you’re thinking it should be Septemberfest.
Well, nein… the first Oktoberfest was held to celebrate the wedding of Kronprinz Ludwig Ludwig to Princess Therese on October 10, 1810.
It’s just that it’s been slowly been moved back to accommodate the lighter nights.
And the 16/18 day festival now runs from mid or late September to the first Sunday in October.
Or all year round if you’re two Aussies on the run.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
It’s a well-told story but my Top Deck double deck bus 10-day trip to the Munich Beer Festival and Austria stretched a little longer.
One year longer to be precise as Brownie and Smutley dropped in on me, if a casual visit describes a 543 mile trip north.
Being Aussies, of course, they asked to stay for a weekend and left a year later.
But only after returning to the scenes of my crimes at the Lowenbrau and Hofbrau huises and Kirchberg in Austria.
The original, and still best Oktoberfest may have poured its last stein for 12 months.
But the party still goes on around the world.
Oktoberfest around the world
In Edinburgh this October 6, 7, 8 and 9, here where I initiated the neighbour in all things Helga and Hofbrau last year.
And in the greater German diaspora with Kitchener (formerly Berlin) in Ontario, Canada where 700,000 clink steins annually.
The Americans, naturally, would never want their neighbour to outdo them and Cincinatti and Denver run them close.
You might be surprised to know though that Blumenau in Brazil is only surpassed by Munich and Kitchener for visitors.
Lager Down Under
Of course Brownie and Smutley could have stayed where they were and enjoyed Oktoberfests in Perth in the Supreme Court Gardens.
Or any of the great Aussie cities.
Mind you as anyone who has been to Munich for Oktoberfest will tell you for those two weeks it is a little corner of Oz.
So the Munich celebrations have wound up when the last lederhosen-dressed Bavarian has called ‘Drink up Oktoberfest is over.‘
But that just means finding your next Oktoberfest bash wherever it is in the world.
