Frühlingsfest
Because I was living in Europe from winter to spring, I didn’t get to make it to the famous Oktoberfest. Lucky for me though, Frühlingsfest, or Springfest, was still an option - The little sister to Oktoberfest. We took a bus from Italy to Munich, Germany where we stayed in some hostel-esque hotel. We had been anticipating this for weeks now - so excited to see what this big party was all about. Well, Frühlingsfest did not disappoint!
This is a two week festival that’s held on the same grounds as Oktoberfest. It’s always scheduled for the last week of April into May. The major difference between the two seasonal festivals is that there are only two large beer tents (Festhalle Bayernland & Hippodrom) as opposed to the sixteen big tents at Oktoberfest. In that sense, it’s much smaller, but thankfully also not as touristically overwhelming as Oktoberfest can be. Both are very much like an ordinary fair or folk festival .. with a shit ton of BEER! Bright lights and colors from all the attractions. Pretzels bigger than my head, unusually long wieners and tons of German sweets were up for grabs.
After walking around to get a feel for the place and trying different foods, it was time to get the party started. I don’t think we had any preference on which tent to go to so we ended up inside Festhalle Bayernlan. This tent has been at Frühlingsfest for more than 40 years. They serve the Augustiner beer here, that is especially well-liked by locals. You can buy hot and cold Bavarian dishes and listen to folk music during the day and party music at night. The energy in these tents just runs through your body and you can’t help but feel so alive! There’s rows of wooden picnic tables where people are sitting, eating and drinking. Some guys in their lederhosen standing on the tables dancing to the loud, traditional music. A woman who worked there was sporting her dirndl, her boobs busting from the top; she came over and dropped off steins of beer for us, juggling 7 or 8 at one time! - Exactly how I imagined a German beer maid would serve beers. These steins are no joke either! Heavy, solid, glass mugs that could potentially do some damage if a fight broke out.. People slamming steins together exchanging the German “Cheers”: PROST! It wasn’t too long before I, in my dirndl, was dancing on the table with a stein in my hand. Few beers deep, great music, dancing on a table inside a beer tent in GERMANY wearing the traditional German getup - just a great memory!
The night ended with some carnival rides, experimenting with some German traditions like Wiesn koks (“Bavarian coke” - which, don’t worry, is in fact not a real drug and completely harmless) & fireworks! This was just a taste of what Oktoberfest would be like & I was very much impressed..
If this pandemic subsides, I just might take a trip to Germany for some Bavarian, Oktober shenanigans..! Who’s coming with?
*Note: With beer prices at around 11 euros per stein, and with tons of tempting rides and food options, I would budget MINIMUM 50 euro a day for your Frühlingsfest experience!
