The large tents of the Oktoberfest

Every one of these rooms is put up in June and taken down in October, which is the strange fact underneath Oktoberfest: buildings for thousands of people that exist for sixteen days. What is gathered here is the practical shape of each one, who pours in it, how late the taps run, when the reservation forms open, and what the tent is actually built around, whether that is a fifteen-metre fish grill, a pipeline, or a dance floor where standing on the benches is not done.

Places in this collection

  • Fischer-Vroni — A fifteen-metre open charcoal grill runs inside the tent with the Steckerlfisch cooking on sticks in full view, mackerel and whitefish and…
  • Paulaner Festzelt — Known on the ground by its tower and the Maßkrug that turns on top of it, and on the plans as the Winzerer Fähndl, the name it carried from…
  • Ochsenbraterei — A rotating spit stands at the entrance and roughly 100 oxen go through the tent across the run, each one recorded by name and weight on a b…
  • Käfer Wiesn-Schänke — Built as a Bavarian hunting lodge in miniature, carved wood and floral painting, holding about 3,050 across its warren of rooms rather than…
  • Hofbräu-Festzelt — The only large tent with a proper standing area, about 1,000 places under hanging hop vines, on top of 6,018 seats inside and 3,022 in the…
  • Hacker-Festzelt — The ceiling is the point: white clouds and gold stars on pale blue, with Munich landmarks painted around the walls, which is where the nick…

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