International Dance Association of San Diego County
IDA Flyer in PDF format - updated 10/03/24
Cancelled: Oktoberfest 2020 cannot take place
Due to Covid-19, there will be no Wiesn 2020
Unfortunately, the largest beer festival in the world cannot take place in 2020 due to the spread of Covid-19. Bavaria's Minister President Markus Söder and Munich's Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter cancelled the Wiesn on April 21, 2020 in a joint press conference.
Take a virtual oktoberfest tour below
Oktoberfest is the world's largest Volksfest (beer festival and travelling funfair). Held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, with more than six million people from around the world attending the event every year. Other cities across the world also hold Oktoberfest celebrations that are modeled after the original Munich event.
During the event, large quantities of Oktoberfest Beer are consumed. Visitors also enjoy numerous attractions, such as amusement rides, sidestalls, and games. There is also a wide variety of traditional foods available.
Tapping Keg and Parade: Munich mayor Dieter Reiter opened the city's 183rd annual Oktoberfest in 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DkkpHgwgtU
Oktoberfest, annual festival in Munich, Germany, held over a two-week period and ending on the first Sunday in October. The festival originated on October 12, 1810, in celebration of the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria, who later became King Ludwig I, to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festival concluded five days later with a horse race held in an open area that came to be called Theresienwiese (“Therese’s green”). The following year the race was combined with a state agricultural fair, and in 1818 booths serving food and drink were introduced. By the late 20th century the booths had developed into large beer halls made of plywood, with interior balconies and bandstands. Each of the Munich brewers erects one of the temporary structures, with seating capacities of some 6,000. The mayor of Munich taps the first keg to open the festival. Total beer consumption during Oktoberfest is upwards of 65,000 hectolitres (1,430,000 gallons). The breweries are also represented in parades that feature beer wagons and floats along with people in folk costumes. Other entertainment includes games, amusement rides, music, and dancing. Oktoberfest draws more than six million people each year, many of them tourists.
2018 Munich Oktoberfest : 6.3 million people, 2 million gallons of beer, 8000 full time employees and 5000 part time employees. Meals: 124 oxen, 48 calves, 59,000 pork knuckles, 60,000 pork sausages and 510,000 grilled chickens. Beer price 2018: 10.70 € – 11.50 € ( ~ 13 USD). 1,400 toilets, 0.6 miles of urinals.
The Story of the Pretzel
The pretzel symbol is a rune from the ancient Germanic times – long before there was an alphabet established – and was the sign for life, as it begins thinly, intertwines, gets thicker and flares out (just like life) into a circle and comes back to a thin end. The Story of the Pretzel – Brezel
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The spelling with a “P” is English. In Germany it is spelled with a “B”, and so also the word starts softly, becomes strong with the “z” in the middle and rolls out into the “l”.
Bread has often been considered the “staff of life”, and this symbol became the sign for the bakers’ guilds. Just as the horseshoe was the sign of the blacksmith, the pretzel was the sign of the bakery.
Zillertaler Hochzeitsmarsch 1991
Different beer types in Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Germany
Based on this summary from the German Brewers Federation from April 2018 there are over 1500 breweries (and growing, esp. craft breweries) brewing 40 types of different beers which are sold under 6000 different brands/labels. Beer is a major part of German culture. German beer is brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot ("purity decree"), sometimes called the "German Beer Purity Law" or the "Bavarian Purity Law", which permits only water, hops, and malt as ingredients and stipulates that beers not exclusively using barley-malt such as wheat beer must be top-fermented. In the original text, the only ingredients that could be used in the production of beer were water, barley, and hops, which had to be added only while the wort was boiling. After its discovery, yeast became the fourth legal ingredient. (For top fermenting beers, the use of sugar is also permitted.)
Wheat beers
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Weizenbier and Weißbier are the standard German names for wheat beer – "Weizen" is German for "wheat", and "weiß" is German for "white".[8]
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Berliner Weisse – a pale, very sour, wheat beer brewed in Berlin. 9° Plato, 2.5-5% ABV. The beer is typically served with raspberry or woodruff flavoured syrup.
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Hefeweizen – an unfiltered wheat beer. "Hefe" is German for yeast.[9]
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Kristallweizen – a filtered wheat beer. Characterized by a clear appearance as opposed to the cloudy look of a typical Hefeweizen.
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Weizenbock is the name for a strong beer or bock made with wheat. 16-17° Plato, 6.5-8% ABV.
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Roggenbier – a fairly dark beer made with rye, somewhat grainy flavour similar to bread, 4.5-6% ABV.
Pale beers
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Export – a pale lager brewed around Dortmund that is fuller, maltier and less hoppy than Pilsner. 12-12.5° Plato, 5-5.5% ABV. Germany's most popular style in the 1950s and 1960s, it is now becoming increasingly rare.
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Helles – a malty pale lager from Bavaria of 11-12° Plato, 4.5-5% ABV.
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Kölsch – pale, light bodied, top fermented, beer which, when brewed in Germany, can only legally be brewed in the Cologne region. 11-12° Plato, 4.5-5% ABV.
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Maibock – a pale, strong lager brewed in the spring. 16-17° Plato, 6.5-7% ABV..
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Märzen – medium body, malty lagers that come in pale, amber and dark varieties. 13-14° Plato, 5.2-6% ABV. The type of beer traditionally served at the Munich Oktoberfest.
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Pilsener – a pale lager with a light body and a more prominent hop character. 11-12° Plato, 4.5-5% ABV. By far the most popular style, with around two-thirds of the market.
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Spezial – a pale, full, bitter-sweet and delicately hopped lager. 13-13.5° Plato, 5.5-5.7% ABV.
Dark beers
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Altbier – a top fermented, lagered beer. It is brewed only in Düsseldorf and in the Lower Rhine region. Its origins lie in Westphalia, and there are still a few Altbier breweries in this region. Tastes range from mildly bitter and hoppy to exceptionally bitter. About ten breweries in the Düsseldorf region brew Altbier at 5%-6.5% ABV.
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Bock – a heavy bodied, bitter-sweet lager that uses dark coloured malts. 16-17° Plato, 6.5-7% ABV.
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Doppelbock – a very strong, very full bodied lager that uses dark coloured malts. 18-28° Plato, 8-12% ABV.
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Dunkel – a dark lager which comes in two main varieties: the sweetish, malty Munich style and the drier, hoppy Franconian style.
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Schwarzbier – a bottom fermented, dark lager beer. 11-12° Plato, 4.5-5% ABV.
German Wines : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_wine
Germany produces wines in many styles : dry, semi-sweet and sweet white wines, rosé wines, red wines and sparkling wines, called Sekt. (The only wine style not commonly produced is fortified wine.) Due to the northerly location of the German vineyards, the country has produced wines quite unlike any others in Europe, many of outstanding quality. The wines have historically been predominantly white, and the finest made from Riesling. Many wines have been sweet and low in alcohol, light and unoaked. Much of the wine sold in Germany is dry, especially in restaurants. Red wine has always been hard to produce in the German climate, and in the past was usually light-colored, closer to rosé or the red wines of Alsace. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of German wines is the high level of acidity in them, caused both by the lesser ripeness in a northerly climate and by the selection of grapes such as Riesling, which retain acidity even at high ripeness levels.
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The wine regions in Germany usually referred to are the thirteen defined regions for quality wine. The German wine industry has organised itself around these regions and their division into districts. However, there are also a number of regions for the insignificant table wine (Tafelwein) and country wine (Landwein) categories. The thirteen major German wine regions are:
Ahr, Baden, Franconia, HessischeBergstraße, Mittelrhein, Mosel, Nahe, Palatinate, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Saale-Unstrut, Saxony, and Württemberg. With the exceptions of Saxony and Saale-Unstrut, most of Germany's major wine regions are located in the western part of the country.
Munich Merry Go Round - Damen Fahrt Oktoberfest München 2019 | Devils Wheel Girls Ride
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_dishes
Huge list of Geman Food with Mouth Watering pictures
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The cuisine of Germany is made up of many different local or regional cuisines, as is typical for somewhat larger countries. Germany itself is part of a larger cultural region, Central Europe, sharing many traditions with neighbouring countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic.
Oktoberfest Tent, Beer & Food Tour - Walking Food Tour - Munich, Germany
Sausage in Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:German_sausages
There are an estimated 1,500 varieties, each with their own preparation, ingredients and unique blends of spices. Most German sausage contains pork and may include beef or poultry along with salt, spices and other flavorings. With over 44 major types of German Sausages, the most common are Frankfurters/Wieners, Bratwürste, Rindswürste, Knackwürste, and Brockwurste.
Currywurst is a dish of sausages with curry sauce, is a popular fast food in Germany.
1 El Cajon Oktoberfest - two weekends, German music/food/dancing/games/vendors
http://www.germanclubsandiego.org/portfolio-list/oktoberfest-2018/
2 Encinitas street festival: German music/food/dancers/games, non German vendors
3 Julian Oktoberfest - no vendors, tiny festival, German music/food/dancers/games
4 La Mesa Oktoberfest - huge street festival, non German vendors, mostly food trucks. No German dancers, mostly rock-pop music. https://www.lamesaoktoberfest.org/