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Today got back the letter from Schottenhammel about our yearly reservations. Not only that they now startetd to bleedin do two shifts like most other tents to, they now are offering me a freakin table at 5pm for the Anstich. WTF do I need a table on Anstich for at such a crap time!?! My family was having their table on Anstich for like a gazillion years and now, and not only that they start doing that shift shit and not respecting the wishes and peferences of their long time traditional customers, they also get cheap on the other reservations. Always had tables for the Saturdays and now they only wanna give us some tables during the week on freakin tuesday... HELLO!!! I WORK AND LIVE HERE AND AM NOT ON SOME FUCKIN PISH HOLIDAY!

God that really annoys the hell out of me! Not only that the tents are selling out their tables big style to tourist agencies, so the non reserved seats are getting less and less every year - now they start to fuck over the local long-time customer on top of that.

I live and work here and used to go there every year, same as my father and grandfather (eventhough at his time there was no reservations needed). Will I have to "book" my tables in the future through a "travel" or "booking" agency? FFS!!!

The Wiesn is getting more and more a freakin joke and tbh they should just put up a big fence around it and charge entrance on everyone going there. The entrance-fee will be something around €50,-- and includes a silly Maßkrug-hat, a silly "I went to the Oktoberfest..."-shirt, an HB-Miniature Maßkrug that plays "Ein Prosit" and a pair of these hillarious beer-googles...

Make it all a freakin theme-park, fire all the Bedienungen and replace em with Hooters girls, bring in light beer and jelly shots in the tents, knock down the Bavaria and the area behind so we can build a fuckin theme-resort there looking like bloody Neuschwanstein, so premium customers who book the "Black-Card-Package" can be granted a 24/7 access to the festival and since we're at it, why stop after two weeks? Open all year, which makes the newly build more level "tents" with gambling area, toddlers park, different restaurants and spa way more profitable and only close down for the Walt freakin Disney memorial day... oh and of course bring in search and destroy teams who simply take out anyone who dares carry tobacco on him within a perimeter of 50km around the festival.

Fuckin hell...

If you're so bent on tradition, shouldn't you be also vouching for horse races, dancing floors, drinking only from Steinkruge and keeping the Jews out?

I actually didn't ask for these things if you would care to read more carefully. There was a certain time when Jews were kept out, but it didn't last 1,000 years as we all know... and just a small hint: you're pissing up your own tree here.

Ok then, what experience running an Oktoberfest tent do you have that makes you qualified to comment on how they should run their business?

Well, there are hundreds of Volksfeste held throughout Bavaria every year, so maybe it's time to try another one. The atmosphere outside of Munich is just as good and there isn't an Australian or Italian to be seen. Here's the Volksfest Calender for events in Bavaria (excluding Franken).

I realise that the Munich Oktoberfest is the big one, but it's not the oldest – not by many centuries. And the Gäubodenfest in Straubing gets over a million visitors each year.

Not only all that, but a Maß is going to cost over €8* this year!


^{*Which they strangely fail to mention on the English version of the website!}

I'm just saying, things change, get over it, if you don't like O-fest anymore (or just the Schottenhammel), vote with your own two feet.

EDIT: yeah, what STB said.

HelterSkelter - do you wear a Pinocchio hat by any chance. Please don't insult Disney. Disney is first rate run organisation not like the Oktoberfest drunken pissup.

I know - the best ones actually are the "Stadlfeste" on the small villages outside of Munich. It's just very annoying to see how drastically the Wiesn is changing. Schottenhammel was one of the last tents still trying to keep the whole thing a bit real and it wasn't known for being the "Munich" tent for nothing. I'm from Munich so to me it means a slight tad more to me for just letting go like that and it's always kind of painfull to see good things go to shreds... because even though the picture I painted above is a bit to over the top, the truth is, if the Wiesn turns into nothing but a big playground for tourists, it'll not only loose it's identity, but it'll slowly kill itself at some point and that would be very sad.

Reservations for Schottenhamel on a Saturday? You lucky bastard! Frigging lead me to them, according to their site they just don't DO reservations on a Saturday at all, at all.

And if you think this year is going nuts, wait until 2010. Not only do we not have an extra day as 3 October is a Sunday, it's also the 200th anniversary.

Like your Dad and Opa, I remember when it was all fields around there and you could walk into any tent and sit down on one of the chairs (!) placed around a round table (!). And yes, before you include me in your diatribe, I earn money by reserving tables for people who don't have the time or language skills or contacts (and the latter should not be necessary) to do so themselves. I am also in constant contact with the tents and get refused tables because "we exclude a certain percentage of our tables from reservation to ensure seats for non-reserved guests". It's not a lower percentage every year, the city forces them to stick to the same number.

As regards Hooters waitresses, it's the female guests that wear porno-Dirndls. The staff may have eye-jolting color combinations but at least their uniforms are serviceable. Stick them into Hooters outfits and you can't tell the two apart (hell, even I have been taken for a waitress - shoulda said "Cash up front!" and disappeared).

I really understand your frustration, although from a different point of view. Try again for your accustomed table and tell them your family history. You are, after all, a "langjähriger Kunde" with priority rights. Good luck!

I find it also a shame that more and more of the locals are getting pushed out of this event due to the large amount of tourists... The extortionate beer prices also means that a lot of the locals can no longer afford to keep going... :-(

It's also a joke trying to get in the tents these days... Maybe they should consider expanding it and using the rest of the land there??

Maybe they should hold two events, one just for tourists and another closed event for those who can prove they live here? :-)

Still, Frühlingsfest soon... :-)

i'm with HS and you got me worried. i am still waiting to find out the result of my reservation request at schottenhamel. last year it wasn't a problem, i only sent in my request in feb for a sunday eve, this year i faxed in november and i still haven't heard. sent them a fax yesterday (no one seems to pick up the phone) and i am still waiting.

sadly, i think that ofest will get more and more commercial and us, münchner, we will find new places to celebrate and enjoy our (own drinking ) culture.

Why do the tents prefer reservations anyway? The place fills up regardless, and a reservation doesn't cost anything, you merely have to buy two mass and a half a chicken, which I imagine almost everyone would do anyway.

I'm thinking it's to do just what everyone argrees is part of the Wiesn - to ensure that natives and regulars can sit down and have two beers and half a chicken. Of course the tents would be full anyway. I assume that reservations have a regulatory effect as well; you don't have 500 people milling around the entrances waiting for an empty table, you have 500 people gathering in an orderly fashion and goosestepping proceding to their reserved seats.
If the Wiesn lasted three or four weeks and had twice as many tents my bet is that they would be just as full.

Ok, so why if it's just for locals are they screwing people over in the manner HelterSkelter suggests?

I've got nothing against your business getting people tables, but maybe they should only allow reservations for people with addresses in Munich and at the same time reduce the amount of reserved space so that the tourists have a chance to get in still. Tourists are always at a distinct advantage anyway because they are normally here on holidays and don't have to work like the rest of us and can therefore get there early and get a good place.

Or maybe they should fill the big empty fields on the southern side with 3 more big tents and maybe 5-8 smaller ones to increase capacity.

This has been dealt with elsewhere, but that would merely increase the capacity of the tents. The capacity of Munich as a city and of the people who live there and have to put up with the shit for three weeks does not increase. Deutsche Bahn and the MVG need to get people to and from the site, the emergency services need the staff to deal with the increased numbers, residents have to deal with increased noise and disruption, etc etc. I think you have to draw a line somewhere with regards to the number of visitors, and six million visits in less than three weeks in a city with a population of 1.3 million is already some way over that line, in my opinion.

Consistent kind of dude, ain't you?
Related topic: Should there be more tents at the Oktoberfest?

Damn straight! Seriously, even huge crowds can't ruin Disneyland. That's not a fair comparison at all. At 35 years old, I still go there several times each year, and I'm sure I'll take my grandkids there. In fact, I'm going there on Sunday.

we got our standard saturday reservation.

I don't think extra tents would lead to more people, just less crowding.

I don't think the crowding of tents is turning any of the tourists away from coming.

You guys don't get it, do you? If you allow the people with reservations to sit there all day long, they're not going to drink or eat as much as tables of 10 being swapped out every 3 hours. If a tent opens at 11 and closes at 11, that's 12 hours, or 4 groups for 3 hours. That means, at a single seat, 4 Halbes Händl instead of 1 or 2 and many many more beers which means money.

And, if you are a business man, like all these tent owners are, it's all about the money. They don't care about tradition and long time customers.

In which tent do they swap the reservations every 3 hours?

Renia, it was just an example. I think they only switch twice (afternoon and evening) but Hofbrau might be 3 times...I'm not sure. The point is that they make more money when the group changes than they do if the same group sits there the whole day and night.

Sure, however twice is a bit different to four times...

I doubt many people would actually sit there for the whole 12 hours anyway...or would be able to.

It always annoys me seeing reserved tables with no one sitting at them (where tables just haven´t turned up or they left early), but if you try to sit there, just to order a beer, you get shooed away by the waitress/waiter (huh? don´t they want my money?).

yeh, that's a very good point kitkat..

Speaking as a businesswoman, here's a link to the larger tents (in English, you can get the smaller tents in German only). They have varying reservations shifts, Hippodrom for example four, beginning at 10am, 11am, 3.30pm and evenings (no capacities available). Wildmoser does two hour shifts beginning at noon, same goes for Ammer. Hofbräu has two shifts per area (Boxe, gallery, central area) beginning at different times, Schottenhamel has two in the Boxe and gallery and one in the central area.

One tip I got straight from the horse's mouth: If you are at a reserved table and your time is running out pay up, cast around for a party about to leave an unreserved table, move there and continue drinking - everyone is happy.

I can't manage to commit to dinner reservations for this evening, let alone figure out which days I'll be able to get to Munich for Oktoberfest a year in advance, so I'm always stuck with trying to crash a tent. The danger there is that you get there at 9 a.m. and you can't leave or you'll never get in anywhere else, and that's a dangerous binge situation.

Some fringe tents to accommodate the overflow and give people a place to go without there being roving frustrated drunkards in the center of the fest would be nice. Well, there will always be roving frustrated drunkards.

Either way, I've always thought reservations should have to be made in person. Seems a bit unfair some frat boys in Indiana can lock up a table at Oktoberfest as easily as the guy that lives down the street.

if they can plan why can't you?

I've met my share of frat boys in Indiana...I'm not entirely sure you should give them that much credit.

Easy, my left foot!
And if everyone who wanted a reservation had to turn up at the offices in person you would feel yourself transported back to Eastern Block times with lines stretching down staircases, along sidewalks and around corners for miles. I mean, you would have to take your whole year's vacation just for waiting in line, leaving you no recreation time during the Wiesn itself.

I think it's a little unfair to group all visitors to Munich together as tourists.

I'm struggling to get reservations for the tents but I don't consider myself - as someone who visits Munich several times a year (in addition to other trips to Germany & Austria) - in the same league as some to whom you've referred. I'll be in Munich in July for an opera en route to Austria and would be more than happy to go along in person to queue for reservations but that doesn't seem to be an option!

Actually I think simply that, like all tourist attractions in the world, Oktoberfest will get more and more crowded every year, and this is unavoidable since tourism in the world is growing.
The good thing of the Oktoberfest, tough, is that it can grow, both in size and time.

I don't understand all this calls for traditionalism, guys, the "original" Oktoberfest was only one week long, and was about drinking beer in a quite tent and watching horse races in October. It evolved with the years in what you see now, and for some strange reason, you accept this evolution, but anything else is "disneyland". Why not evolve more, to the better for anyone: make it 3 weeks, build two or more tents for another 30.000 people (just get rid of the stupid parking lot), make the new tents more attractive to tourists, and leave the original tents playing brass band music for the locals. Everyone will be happy, the tent owners will make more money, the city (hotels, restaurants etc) will make more money, locals will not struggle finding a place in Augustiner and tourists will even be able to get into a tent without suffering the local reservation system...

...as a Munich resident I have learned to get a reservation and I know how to get in the tents without one... but everytime I ask myself: why all this mess? The solution is so easy, more time, more seats.

Nahhhh - straight supply and demand economics is the answer. Make the beer €12 a glass - should slow up the overcrowding and the tents make more money, so even when 75% full they are making as much money as normal. Less stress for customers and staff.

are you crazy?
space is limited (theresienwiese as well as munich's hotel capacity)and so is time. munich is in a state of mayham for 2 weeks which i think is enough. (and i dare say most locals would agree). good things always have to come to an end and extending the period is not the solution.

I don't even bother with the Oktoberfest... just too crowded for me. Its nice to see once or bring a visitor but unless they expand to include more tents with ample seating to accommodate the crowds, I'm not interested. Last year we just walked through, got some food and then walked over to the Hacker place on the corner; sat in their beer garden drinking less expensive beer in a nice peaceful setting.