Tradition Reigns at Munich's 'Other' Oktoberfest

Tradition Reigns at Munich's 'Other' Oktoberfest

By Christopher Cottrell in Munich, Germany

Bavarian folk music, old-fashioned carnival rides and a beauty pageant unlike any other. At Munich's 'other' Oktoberfest, the city has found a way to keep the beloved festival true to its traditional roots.

The tiny wooden stage was crammed with polished brass instruments, guitar stands and microphones. Atop a makeshift clothesline, judges had hung dusty rugs for contestants to beat clean as part of a beauty pageant scheduled for that evening. When they finished, the three women would be tasked with seeing who could hold a full mug of beer at arm's length the longest without putting it down.

These weren't your average beauty queens. But then again, Peter Reichert and his wife Gerda, the proprietors of a tent for musicians and folk singers at the Oktoberfest, weren't looking to throw just any party. Their establishment, called "zur Schönheitskönigin," or "beauty queen," is located in a tranquil corner of Munich's Theresienwiese, the site where millions of people converge each year to attend the world's largest beer festival, in an area dubbed the "Oide Wiesn" -- Bavarian for "old Oktoberfest."

Last year, as part of the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest, organizers started the "old Oktoberfest" as a way to bring back the former traditions of the world's largest beer festival. It was hugely popular and this year it has already drawn some 500,000 people. Senior citizens and local Bavarians are especially taken with the more traditional Oktoberfest, where kids can play and visitors sport their best lederhosen and dirndls.

"It's not that we weren't happy with the Oktoberfest in and of itself -- it just wasn't as peaceful as we would've preferred," Oktoberfest Director Gabriele Weishäupl told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Not Just Oompah Bands

Sheltered from the hustle and bustle of the adjacent Oktoberfest by rows of old-fashioned carnival rides, food stands with strictly Bavarian menus and even a tractor exhibition, Reichert and his colleagues pride themselves on offering visitors a genuine Bavarian experience.

The beauty queens are judged less on their looks than they are on their ability to perform regionally relevant tasks like rolling dumplings or holding overflowing mugs of beer. Teenagers and grandmothers compete in equal measure.

Even the music is strictly Bavarian, although a spokeswoman for the tent emphasized that this didn't mean they were necessarily limited to old-fashioned oompah bands.

"Traditional Bavarian means we have our roots, but, at the same time, we're also open to new things," the spokeswoman, Sabine Elisabeth Barthelmess, said.

On the opening day of Oktoberfest, local bands like MC Harras -- a hip-hop group named after a part of town in Munich -- took part in a "Gstanzl slam," a music competition similar to a rap battle where competitors sing in the Bavarian dialect. "There's a young and wild side too," Berthelmess said.

A Return to Tradition and Coziness

Outside the Recherts' tent, Björn Zietlow admired an old-fashioned merry-go-round with his family. As his young son played tag with another little girl, cutting in front of the occasional passerby and grabbing onto strangers' pant legs for balance, the 41-year-old Munich native said the family-friendly atmosphere is what drew him to the "Oide Wiesn."

"It's much easier to just let the kids run around here," Zietlow said, his son tugging playfully at his arm. "They don't get lost as quickly."

Zietlow isn't one for the loud music, binge drinking and the exorbitant prices of the larger Oktoberfest. He remembers a time when everything wasn't so commercial and people in the beer tents didn't start dancing on tables until much later in the evening.

"I think it would be easier to bring tradition back to the Oktoberfest if they'd simply leave out the party hits and just let the brass bands play their own music," he said. "Tradition and coziness are really what define the Oktoberfest. You get comfortable, have a few beers and everything is good."

'It's Important for Munich'

But the Oktoberfest has for years been more than just a place where friends and family can get together for drinks and conversation, as evidenced by the exponential growth in recent years in the amount of beer consumed and chickens roasted.

In 1980, 5.1 million visitors drank 38,438 hectoliters (8.1 million pints) of beer, according to figures from Munich's tourism office. Thirty years later, in time for the festival's 200th anniversary, 6.4 million revellers downed 71,000 hectoliters of beer.

Next year, the old Oktoberfest will be sidelined because of an already-scheduled agricultural fair, but it will be back in 2013, organizers said.

"We realized last year that we would have to keep doing it," Oktoberfest Director Gabriele Weishäupl said. "It's important for Munich, for Bavaria, for this love we have for our past, our traditions and customs."

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