The World’s Biggest Party

Oktoberfest Munich, Germany

What lures us die-hard Oktoberfest fans to Munich each and every year without fail? Why do we come back again and again to re-experience the world’s largest festival?

Is it the beer?  For sure, it’s probably the best in the world. No preservatives, no chemicals, just lots and lots of pure unadulterated water, barley, hops and yeast resulting in double the taste (and alcohol content) of a typical beer.   It’s smooth.  It’s flavorful.  It’s wickedly deceptive in its ability to seduce you.  One sip and you’re powerless to halt its consumption.

This drug-like concoction is served up by full-bosomed waitresses with elongated arms that cradle up to two-dozen liter steins of beer.  They seem to defy the laws of physics by carrying more beer than their body weight.  Their bosoms must somehow stabilize their cargo. I haven’t seen one topple yet.

As an added bonus, the hangovers seem less thunderous.  Maybe it’s because of the purity of the brew. Then again, maybe it’s because the consumption starts up the next day before your brain has a chance to register the carnage from the day before.  

Is it the food?  Ooh the food.  Fat aside, its appeal will bring tears to your eyes.  Forget the calories, forget the cholesterol and forget about the numerous animals that have given up their lives for your gluttony.  There’s the delectable ‘rubber eagles’, seasoned whole chickens broiled in their own juices as they rotate over and over before your adoring eyes.  Then there are the delicious sausages, the sauerkraut that isn’t actually sour, the sauerbraten in gravy, the shwein-hoxen covered in a layers of hardened broiled fat, the radishes that uncoil like slinkies, the fragrant cheeses and the numerous sugary convections. All are designed to please your taste buds and lay waste to your wardrobe.     

Is it the camaraderie? Maybe.  Where else can you find six million people from all reaches of the globe united in blissful rejoicing uninhibited by language, politics, personalities or decorum.  Standing on chairs and tables, raising mammoth beers, swaying  and dancing to oom-pah-pah music and ancient American rock songs seems to unite cultures more than any United Nations assembly ever could.  Forget about terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the idiocies that drive a wedge between our varied cultures.  Ein beer, zwei beer, drei beer and all is forgotten. We all become long lost friends forever or at least for the moment.

Is it the traditions, the parade of floats, beer wagons and costumed Bavarians parading into the Oktoberfest grounds?  The children, the parents and the grandparents all wearing clothing and playing music originated by their ancestors makes us all long to be part of the festivities.

How about the beer halls and gardens, the glockenspiels, the magnificent castles and palaces, the obsessive cleanliness, the green parks, and the efficient U-bahn and S-bahns that effortlessly wisk you from one corner of Munich to another?  They all to add to the magic of a culture innocently preserved from generation to generation, changed, but not spoiled by the twenty first century.

They all blend together to provide an experience unequaled by any other.  A reality enhanced by consumption of good frothy beer and fabulous food, friendships that ignore borders and traditions never forgotten all seem to compel you to return time and time again to this wonderful magical land.