Why 5 stars? Because this was the coolest surprise of our Europe trip.
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We didn't have any plans for this particular evening, so we took the recommendation of a local to check out Fruhlingsfest, which was described as "Halfway to Oktoberfest." We were amused on the train ride over, as we noticed quite a few people in their full-on German outfits.
As soon as we got off the train and exited the station, we saw all the signs of a typical American fair: rides that will make you fear for your life, games to win prizes and all the usual concessions. We walked around amused at the similarities between the Florida State Fair and this, but it was nothing we'd never seen before, so we were en route to make the rounds and head out.
But then we noticed a giant tent that seemed to have a decent amount of activity inside, so we went to check it out. It was literally like a different universe than the one that we had just been in.
Outside: a smattering amount of people checking out rides and eating corn dogs.
Inside: a raucous party that looked like something straight out of a movie.
An underrated aspect of this spectacle was how much these giant tents keep the noise inside. And when I say "tent," keep in mind that I'm talking about something the size of a grocery store. But what was going on inside was no trip to Publix...
It was the biggest, loudest house party that you've ever seen. There must have been 2,000-3,000 people. Many of them looked way too young to drink, but there was plenty of beer at every table. At one point, I asked a table of teenagers what the legal drinking age was, but the language barrier got in the way of getting a straight answer. What I took away from my interaction is that it's 16 to drink beer, but it didn't seem very heavily enforced.
The younger the group, the more rowdy they were. Thousands of teenagers and kids in their early 20's was as rambunctious as possible when it came to singing and dancing along with the music. Tables of dozens of people were clinking (more like slamming) their steins together and chanting at the top of their lungs. The older group of folks (25ish and up) were all situated at tables around the outer part of the beer hall. They were definitely enjoying themselves but in a much more subdued fashion.
Servers were frantically running around carrying 8 steins at a time, as fast as they could be poured. Despite the chaos of everything inside, they were pulling off the impossible task of remembering who ordered what and dodging drunk people to deliver things without spilling. I was able to track a server down and order a beer and pretzel for myself.
Speaking of that language barrier, it amused me that we had a hard time communicating with some people in here, yet the band was playing American music and everyone was impeccably singing along, word-for-word.
We were really amused and impressed with the whole experience, and very fortunate that we planned our trip to Munich while this was happening, all by chance! As we were heading toward the exit, we stumbled upon two other giant parties just like the first one! I still can't get over how we would have never known that any of this was going on if we didn't look closely enough. We felt like we got the real, Oktoberfest experience, all on accident! read more