17 October 2009
First Oktoberfest in Munich: October 17, 1810
Posted by Cecilia under: Culture .
Oktoberfest, the Munich Beer Festival, is one of the world’s most widely-known beer festivals. This year Oktoberfest ran from September 19th to October 4th.
The very first Oktoberfest took place 199 years ago this month. It began with a royal party organized by King Maximilian I. of Bavaria on October 17, 1810.
In the beginning ”Oktoberfest” was actually not about beer at all. King Maximilian organized the five-day celebration to publicly celebrate the marriage of his son Ludwig.
The main attraction that year was a horse race and, brace yourselves beer lovers - free wine.
Over time the horse race was abandoned, but the celebrations have remained and expanded.
The first “Oktoberfest” counted about 40,000 guests. This year’s 176th Oktoberfest saw 5.7 million visitors to the city. Together they consumed about 6.5 million liter of beer.
On the Oktoberfest website the countdown for 177th annual event has already begun.
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Today in Sikantis – October 17, 2009 « Sikantis Says:
17 October 2009 at 3:05 pm.
[...] Special News – First Oktoberfest in Munich: October 17, 1810 [...]
