For the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig in October 1820, the citizens of Munich were invited to attend the 16 day royal event. For years to come the celebrations were repeated and, later, the festival was prolonged and moved forward into mid September to take advantage of better weather.
Another theory is that back in the day without refrigeration, the purpose of the festival was to drink up the old stocks of beer to make room for the new brew that would be made with the fall harvest. Either way, Prince Ludwig had the right idea.
Here’s another fun fact. In 1996 Frankenmuth, Michigan became the only city other than Munich to be an officially sanctioned Oktoberfest celebration.
Moooosic to your ears.
The celebration goes on not only at the Pavillion but throughout the entire town this September 20-23. Even cattle get to celebrate! Brett Bassett, restaurant manager of Sullivan’s Black Forest Brew Haus says that after brewing each batch of beer, the spent grain is given to a local cattle farmer. Maybe that’s Sullivan’s wink to “green” beer.
So whether you enjoy the wiener dog races, riding on the electric riverboat, enormous pretzels, bier drinking or dancing to oompah bands – everyone can get into the spirit of things, even the local cattle.
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Funny you should ask, I'm considering putting a book together of "Just Bea" cartoons. Here's a question that will help me in putting it together, would you like to see the strip along with the blog text?