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Oktoberfest
The Oktoberfest
When you hear the word “Oktoberfest”, it is almost normal that you are just thinking of Bavarian beer! But in reality there is much more to tell about the Oktoberfest.
The Munich Oktoberfest is the biggest public festival in the world. The area is 103.79 acres big. In Germany it is called “Wiesn”. This year it will take place for the 175th time.
There are coming around six million visitors each year from all over the world to the festival. They drink more than five million litres of beer and consume over 200.000 pairs of sausages.
But you can not just eat and drink at the Oktoberfest. You can have a lot of fun on roller coasters or carousels. The festival has a lot of other fun for the enjoyment for visitors all ages to offer.
As you can see at this examples, the famous Oktoberfast has an enormous influence on the economy of the city Munich and his sorrounding area. There are about 12. 000 people working to represent the world´s biggest and most popular festival.
For the festival grounds, food, drinks and for entertainment were spent 450 million €. For the shopping in and around the city, restaurants and hotels were spent 205 million €. 300 million € were spent on hotel accomodation. All in all the people from all over the world spent during 16 days 955 million €.
The history of the Oktoberfest began in 1810. King Ludwig the first was married to Princess Therese of Saxony on the 12th October 1810. The festivities of this royal wedding were held on the fields, because the whole citizens of Munich had been invited. In honor of the Crown Princess they called this fields “Theresienswiese”.
For the entertainment of the people they made horse races. The first step of the tradition of the Oktoberfest was, that the people decided to repeat the horse races every year.
One year later, in 1811 they added to the horse races a show to boost Bavarian agriculture. Today there are no more horse races, but the Agricultural Show is still helt every three years.
You could find the first carousel and two swings in 1818. In this year there had also been the first beer stands. In 1896 they built the first beer tents. The Oktoberfest developed from year to year.
Today it is a festival for young and old people, for Germans and for people from all over the world. Are you the next visitor?