Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest (German pronunciation: [ɔkˈtoːbɐˌfɛst] ; Bavarian: Oktobafest/d'Wiesn) is the world's largest Volksfest. It combines a beer festival with a fun fair and is held annually in Munich on the Theresienwiese from mid-September to the first Sunday in October. The event draws around seven million visitors each year. In 2023, attendance reached a record 7.2 million. Visitors consumed approximately 7.4 million litres of beer. The festival features amusement rides, games, food stalls, and traditional Bavarian dishes. The first Oktoberfest was held on 12 October 1810 to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Since then, the festival has been cancelled on multiple occasions, most recently in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Read by LordOider. Recorded September 27, 2013; the article may have changed since. The article as it stood when recorded: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=574624796 Article today: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest Original recording: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:En-Oktoberfest-article.ogg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). This episode is a format-shifted (MP3) copy redistributed under the same license. This show is an independent community project, not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation.