Tent accessibility on Friday 3.Oct.2008

Since the upcoming Friday is going to be a holiday, I was wondering how early I should be there before the tents close. I guess you could see the Friday as a Saturday in this case, but it will be a holiday for Germans, not for foreigners. So probably most of the visiting foreigners will arrive later.

I think it will be very similar to last Saturday, absolute chaos. We got there at approx. 11.45am and never even got into a beer garden, let alone a tent. Sunday we arrived at 11am and just strolled in, so I reckon anytime before 11am.

i am part of a group that is planning on going at 8am, we did this last year too, doors opened at 8:30 and we had our first beers just after 9.
guess is depends on which tent you want into. And how big your group is.

only about 20% of all visitors are tourists most people are from bavaria. So if the weather is good expect it to be extremely overcrowded. You should go there before 10am, after that the first tends will probably already close.

Pas, I also reckon Friday will be more like a saturday than a sunday and the tents will fill up quickly so 11am might still get you in a tent but you probably won't get a table.

We are a group of 15 heading over from Ireland On Thursday morning. Obviously we will need to be in the tents early on Friday and can i assume that Saturday will be the same? Can anyone recommend which tents we should head for? I was there last year and spent time in The Augustiner tent, the Spaten tent and the HB tent. Should we head for the same ones or should we venture to other tents... thanks in advance

My take is you can go for the Hacker tent (might be quite packed) or even the Braürosl which is usually not one of the first tents to get packed in the morning (as a fall back).

As early as you can get there. Really. We showed up (only two of us) at 9 a.m. this past Saturday and were out of luck until, for better or worse, hippodrom opened doors at 11 when we were walking back from the ATM. So we rode the crush in.

Otherwise, we would have been outside all day.

Another thing... this bribing business: My friend comes each year and he says he does the same thing. Never a problem. ummmm... when I'm shut outside a tent, with a few hundred new-found friends with the same ambition of getting inside, and no one will even acknowledge my existence, let alone come close enough to be discretely offered money... how does this work?

I think you meant me, but yes, I should have worded that better, Well in advance of 11am was what I really meant.

It won't be less crowded than a Saturday, since most of the crowd is German anyway.
I have noticed this in the past years, whenever the 3rd of October was close to a weekend, it was always a big mess.

I can even imagine that there will be more locals willing to go on the 3rd, since shops are closed on the 3rd while they are open on Saturday, and they still get a non-working day afterwards to rest.

Ended up having to pay security to get in the hofbrau tent yesterday

How much? Did they set the price? Did it get you a seat or just entrance?

Inform the management. Give them date, time and entrance. The unreserved tables are meant to be accessible without restriction, security has to let people in as long as there is room.
Bastards.

As far as I'm concerned he did me a favor. There was a giant sign outside that said closed and he told everyone for the 40 minutes I was standing there that the tent was closed for the rest of the day. Some other American girl and her friends had a talk with them and he lead them around the side, I followed with my friend. They had 8 people, but he only wanted to bring in 5 at a time, so each group of 5 paid him 70 euro. I only got entrance, but I don't need help finding a seat.