Best gay hang-out: Bräurosl-Tent during the first weekend

Octoberfest was first celebrated in 1810 to honor Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig’s marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The festival began on October 12, 1810 and ended 5 days later. All thought it was great fun and found every excuse to repeat it ever since, 175 times so far. If you believe we cannot count, well, it was cancelled 24 times since 1810…..

What is the purpose of Octoberfest? Not a serious question we hope. This is not the theatre or movies, but a huge outside party (well, in 14 tents really) that is all about meeting people and having fun.

The best place to start is Saturday September 20th at 12pm when the mayor of Munich has the honor of tapping the fist keg and announce the opening of Octoberfest 2008.

If you want good seats, you have to get your lazy butt out of bed. Although the Wies’n (another name for Octoberfest – the place it is held at is called Theresienwiese) starts at 10am, most locals (as we know the Germans) will start at 9am just to get good seats (no, not just their towels this time). Plan for a long day….. the last tent closes at 1am.

Another thing to know is that beer at Octoberfest is not necessarily cheap. Make sure you take plenty of cash as the estimated beer price this year will range from 7.70 Euros to 8.00 Euros per liter

Did you know: Bavarians do not speak German but „Bayrisch“. You are a fool should you believe you can talk to the locals just because you had German in school. After 10 beers or so, you will be perfect, no doubt about it, but to make sure you get around until such time we have nicked a few things from the Oktoberfest website (www.oktoberfest.de). Study carefully as we have selected the ones that keep you out of trouble:

arschlings (adj.)
backwards, more specific: "in your behinds direction". – important to know so you can ask for the waiter

bieseln (v.)
term for "to take a leak"; unfortunately too many want to save a couple of Cents and use the option "wild bieseln" – note: do not get caught, it’ll cost ya…..

Busserl (n.)
term for a swift kiss, often on other parts of the face or body than the mouth. Example: „Busserl aufs Backerl“ (kiss on the cheak). More intensive kiss mutations, as the French kiss, are not included in this term – important so you know what is expected of you

Cafe Viereck (n.)
jail, prison, slammer – start to run when you hear this term

Dampf (n.)
occurs after some Maß beer, the intoxication – either p...e or go home when you have reached this stage.

Fetznrausch (n.)
totally drunk – you can do what you want, you have already made a fool out of yourself.

Gamsbart (n.)
traditional Bavarian hat adornment, every proper Oktoberfest visitor should posses one – should you read this after September 1st, do not worry, if yours is not long enough for Oktoberfest, you can still apply as a waiter.

And when you like it this year...... the next Wies’n will be on:

2009: September 19 - October 4
2010: September 18 - October 3
2011: September 17 - October 3