Let’s Drink Up for Oktoberfest

While there’s an International Beer Day that’s celebrated every first Friday of August, beer drinkers around the world know that Oktoberfest is a great reason to celebrate beer.

Oktoberfest is a festival held yearly in Munich so it’s understandable if you’re unable to attend. But that fact should not stop you from enjoying this beer festival. The next best thing? Holding your own Oktoberfest Party! Here’s some tips to make it the best Oktoberfest: Party version. 

1. Dress up for the occasion. 

Celebrants usually attend wearing costumes. If you’re into it, you can request your guests wear lederhosen and dirndls. The men’s costume is basically just knee-length khaki shorts, suspenders, knee-high socks, and a feathered hat. The dirndls will make you look like the stereotypical Alpine female peasant. To achieve this look, they usually wear a lacy blouse, a tight bodice and a full skirt, and their hair is worn in braids or pigtails. 

2. Prepare a ton of beer and prost it. 

If you’re in the actual Oktoberfest, you will probably “prost” that being chanted every 15 minutes, encouraging attendees to drink. To mimic this, you can play a game of stop-drink (instead of stop-dance). Tell your assigned DJ to stop the music every 15 minutes and to toast and say “prost” or cheers. If you want to go hardcore, make it a drinking game, and stop the music at random times instead. 

Moreover, because you’re doing this, you have to make sure that you have a lot of beer for the guests. You can either buy the bottles in bulk, or buy by kegs then serve in half-liter beer mugs or steins. Make sure you have a variety of options, by serving at least 2-3 of the following:

• Light beer
• Lagers
• Pilsners
• Ale

For non-beer drinkers, have some german wine on hand — like Riesling or Spatburgunder (or Pinot noir).

3. Make your table as close to an official Oktoberfest food spread as possible.

Serve your guests a great feast of Oktoberfest food staples. You may try to incorporate modern twists to these German food to make it your own.

• You can personalize roast meat and chicken, by creating your own sauce. 
• Grilled fish can be any fish — even mackerel or sardines. 
• Serving German sausages or bratwursts in buns will give this dish a new taste. 
• You can serve pretzels with a cream cheese dip or just coat them with sugar and cinnamon powder.
• Sauerkraut, or pickled cabbage, can be enhanced by adding cut-up sausage and some sour cream.

4. Go Polka or go home.

Oktoberfest music are mostly German polka. Interestingly, there is a great number of children songs as these encourage dancing, with easy-to-follow choreography of just jumping, hand-swaying and clapping. If you desire to make the experience really authentic, create a german song playlist with songs about friendship and meeting new people. On the other hand, you can come up with your own playlist of songs that you think will encourage friendship and inhibit dancing. 

5. Bring Oktoberfest to your guests.

Your decorations will definitely influence the vibe of your party. The tents at the beer festival are full of long lines of tables. To create the same feel, have few long tables set up, or line up several short ones to make a long one. Cover it with a blue-and-white checkered cloth (this will make it look like Bavaria’s flag). This is great if its outdoors, like a garden of some sort.

Alternatively, if you’re planning to do it indoors, you can set it up like a Bierkeller, which is an underground pub. 

Since Oktoberfest is all about enjoying each other’s company — singing, dancing and drinking together, don’t forget what makes it Oktoberfest: having fun with friends.

 

You can rent beer glasses from Signature Event Rentals to make Oktoberfest a special occasion. Call now to reserve.