Oktoberfest 2025

Went to a local fest at Cahaba Brewing in Bham. Hot a/f, rain that only made it hotter, 45 min line for brews, and the wife caught me lingering a little too long checking out a fraulein (of which there were only 2 that I saw). So not a great day.

Stupid question I’m sure, by why is Octoberfest held in September around here?

Bucket list.

Update when you get back.

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Oktoberfest go live as early as March/April

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Great info. I'm planning on 2026. Is there a centralized table booking site, or is it by biergarten? I presume you can usually just book seats (we'll be 2) and not whole tables, right? Or do you just book the table and let your new friends buy you rounds?

I'll be there with a large group.

Oct. 2 - three tables at Shottenhamel
Oct. 3 - four tables at Lowenbrau

We love Munich and will be strolling around town and taking it all in the other days. I'm excited to try Tantris while we're there.

Prost!

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Each tent conducts its own reservations with different timetables and pricing.

Here is a site that compiles URLs for all the tents, each of which will provide you with instructions on how to reserve spots. I'm not sure how many allow seats vs. tables.

Like Mizzou said, reservations tend to become available in the March/April timeframe. Augustiner opens reservations up to members (and previous guests) first and tend to be difficult to obtain.

Consolidated Oktoberfest Tent Reservation Info

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Great info, thanks!

Perfect, thanks Prost

I’ve been twice, first time was for the first portion of my honeymoon and the 2nd was my 5 year anniversary.

Don’t go weekends unless you are local or know someone. It’s chaos and crazy, wall to wall people and shoulder to shoulder.

Imagine Mardi Gras but with liters of beer and liters of broken beer mugs. Also, imagine Mardi Gras with a fair with European fair rides like a giant swing and roller coaster. That roller coaster and swing ride in the rain after 3 steins is fricking nuts….

Best thing is go and enjoy the city during the week until about 2-3 and then go. It’s very much a local event and while people do take off work, if you go at 2-3 you’ll beat the crowd that leaves work early. Get a good table and post up for the night.

I also like to go for a late lunch as it’s plenty busy and then you can tent hop every beer.

It’s a blast. Mostly locals and you get a good spot in a good tent and it’s almost all locals. If you like meat and beer the food is very good especially for festival beer.

ETA: almost every tent has first come first serve areas. Yeah prime areas are generally reserved but the first come areas are perfectly fine.

My favorite time of the year. I went for opening weekend with locals (both expats and Germans). Here was my schedule:

Saturday
We had seatings with friends at both the Kaefer tent (two seatings, 11am-7pm) and the Marstall tent (two seatings, 3pm - 11pm). Since it was going to be a marathon day, we loaded up with a large breakfast. We took rickshaws from the hotel to the back gate to the Wies'n to arrive about 11:15 and went to our table. Beer is not available until the mayor taps the ceremonial first keg at noon, so we pounded champagne as an eye opener. The Kaefer tent is more of a boutique experience with mostly wealthy locals.
You'll want to eat, so we started with a brotzeit platter of meats and cheeses. At noon, it was time for the first Maß of the day. Kaefer serves Paulaner beer. I try to limit myself to one Maß per hour. Drink water in between. Bathrooms are numerous and I never encountered a line.
Around 5pm we moved over to the Marstall tent, which is a traditional large tent with thousands of people. By this point most people were lubed up so the atmosphere was very festive. I switched to .5 liter Weissbiers, and you can also order things like Espresso Martini shots which kept us going.
They booted everyone out between seatings here, so we had to leave for about 30 minutes while they cleaned and then came back for the final 7pm-11pm stretch. Waters were consumed at the end, along with a döner on the long walk home to sober up.

Sunday: another hearty breakfast of Weisswurst and pretzels provided a strong base. We arrived at the Wies'n around noon, as we had no table reservations until 3pm. A little-known fact is that there are miniature biergartens all around the Wies'n. We jumped around those and hung out with friends until the seating at the Schottenhamel tent. This one is slightly below the Marstall tent, but still a very good one. Crowd was slightly rowdier but fun and the food is great. Wrapped up at 7pm, then left and went to dinner wth friends. Another long but fantastic day.

A word on Music: Every tent has a band and DJ, and the crowd totally gets into it. The bands start with traditional Bavarian instrumental songs, but after the first hour the Oktoberfest hits come on. Make sure you put the OKTOBERFEST 2025 Spotify playlist on repeat - it's completely accurate. You should at least learn the chorus to the following: Country Roads; Sweet Caroline; Major Tom; Layla; Hulapalu; Cordola Gruen; Bella Napoli (DEFINITELY the hottest song this year); and Atemlos by Helene Fischer. Marstall tent closes every seating with Don't Stop Believing.

Lodging: don't worry about staying near the Wies'n. I stayed in the Old Town and walked back (25 minutes, recommended to sober up, and stop for a döner). The U3/U4 takes you directly there from the Hauptbahnhof.

For Lederhosen, look for "Trachten" shops, they are all over the place right now. If you plan on going more than once, go ahead and invest in something decent. Ludwig Beck (department store on Marienplatz) has lederhosen starting at around 250 euros and the ladies there will get you the comlete outfit with vest, socks, shirt etc.
You can get cheaper and lower quality "costume" lederhosen at most tourist shops near the Hauptbahnhof or in the old town.
People who aren't dressed in Tracht look out of place in the tents.