This festival dates back to 1810 and is done to celebrate the 12th marriage of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to the Saxon-Hildburghausen Princess Therese. During this time, the citizens of Munich received an invitation to the festival, and it lasted five days and took place in the fields located in front of the city gates. The main event was a horse race.
After the main event, celebrations were held annually on the same date, and they even became bigger. In the second year of celebration, they added an agricultural show. The organizers kept adding more things to make the festival as interesting as possible. It started to feature more mechanical rides, with the first roller coaster being introduced in 1908. When the land started allowing beer on the fairgrounds, more beers started to come in, and it has now dominated the festival. German folk dancers usually have great moments performing to a crowd that is excited and looking for nothing else but fun.
Eventually, the festival was pushed to September because the month had better weather conditions. It was also prolonged from five days to 14 days to ensure that people have a maximum time of fun. Currently, the first Sunday of October marks the last day of the festival. In 2006, Oktoberfest extended to more days because the first Tuesday of October 3rd is a national holiday. Over the past 200 years, since the first festival was held, Oktoberfest has been cancelled 24 times because of war and cholera epidemics.
Links: German dancers – Bavarian music – Oktoberfest bands
