Oktoberfest is the world’s largest Volksfest. It is held annually in Munich, Germany. It is a 16-to-18-day folk festival that begins in late September and runs to the first Sunday in October. In excess of six million people attend every year. Oktoberfest originated on October 12th, 1810, in celebration of the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria, who later became King Louis 1, to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghhausen.
Sadly, this year’s Oktoberfest was cancelled due to the pandemic but that didn’t stop us holding our own festival here at Canterbury House. The festival is well-known for its dancing, singing and general debauchery but it is most famous for its beer.
This week we got together in the sky bar to recreate Oktoberfest. We entered the bar to be greeted by the sounds of traditional German folk music and yodelling. The atmosphere was electric, it’s amazing, the power that music has, to transport you to another place or time.
The table was laden with freshly baked pretzels, German Bratwurst sausages and beer, lots of lovely beer.
The afternoon was so much fun, we chatted about our experiences of trips to Germany, we discussed the sights and sounds. A few of us were familiar with some of the language and there were attempts to teach us a few phrases which was quite a challenge after a couple of beers.
We ended the afternoon with a competition between the men, they were attempting to pour the perfect pint, turns out there’s quite a knack to it.
I do feel sorry that the festival had to be cancelled, it must have been so disappointing for everyone involved. Hopefully people were able to hold their own scaled down versions just as we did and hopefully, they had as much fun as we did.