Appropriate Octoberfest Clothes

You'll be fine in street clothes.

Most people will be in regular street clothes.

Thank you! Many of the Oktoberfest sites discuss the traditional dress. It's not practical to buy or pack special clothes for one day in a 14 day trip. It's good to know street clothes are OK!!

Most people will be wearing regular street clothing. We didn't feel remotely out of place.

Most websites that encourage you to dress in traditional Bavarian garb also direct you to a place that sells them. If you are with a group, then yes, it can be fun to get into the scene, but for a day or two, on a tour, it does not make sense cost or weight wise. (Lederhosen are heavy and bulky....carried them around for 3 weeks...though I wore them maybe a half dozen times or more on the trip with a group of guys)

I guess I will add a slight alternative...if you look at most of the dress, for men anyway. a checkered shirt in red or blue is often worn, that with a decent pair of pants would get you somewhat into the spirit, for women. maybe an embroidered top. You could always pop into one of the stores in Munich and see if something catches your eye.

Great idea for a compromise! Thank you.

Back when I was in my 20's I found that I could attend Octoberfest and come home wearing something different that what I went in.

Just come as you are. There is not much tradition to what most people wear who claim to wear traditional clothing. Although "Tracht" has always been part of the Oktoberfest's history, it was frowned upon wearing it among people from Munich until a couple of years ago. You can learn more on that on https://wiesnkini.de/en/magazine/tracht-oktoberfest-clothing/.

Bottom line: Just dress what you like. Only Halloween costumes are really frowned upon.

Although "Tracht" has always been part of the Oktoberfest's history, it was frowned upon wearing it among people from Munich until a couple of years ago.

a recent NY Times article: Bavarian Millennials Embrace Tradition (Dirndls, Lederhosen and All)

MUNICH — Hip-hop blared from oversize speakers. Half-finished beer glasses teetered precariously along the bar, and a scrum of teenage bodies writhed on the dimly lit dance floor. It was a regular night out in hip urban Munich.
And everyone was in 19th-century Alpine peasant dress.
In Bavaria in 2018, tradition is trendy and custom is cool. Bavarian teenagers, who once wore jeans and T-shirts in Oktoberfest season, are going clubbing in dirndl and lederhosen.
“Ten years ago, we rarely saw a dirndl in the disco,” said Dierk Beyer, a manager at Neuraum, a popular nightclub near the site of the Oktoberfest. “Now it’s normal.”

jodie, its like a Renaissance Festival or a comic book convention, where some people are so into it, they want to dress up in costume just to have fun. Its like that. We saw very few people dressed up that weren't working some of the attractions. Otherwise, its like a gigantic state fair in the US, and people are dressed normally.

I think many of us had the wrong impression from watching "European Vacation" too many times.

Until the 80s, the normal fest visitor wore his normal suit. Trachten were limited to Oberlandlers (whom Joseph Roth called in his novel Die Kapuzinergruft with the immortal term "die christlichen Alpentrottel"; I spare myself the translation); for them that was the normal Sunday suit.
Then a manager of the Oktoberfest came up with the idea of promoting wearing of Trachten in order to give the festival a kind of corporate idendity, and people fell for it, except the few who did not voluntarily allow themselves to be made into instruments of the Munich tourism industry. As a child I had Lederhosen because they were practical; I never have considered them appropriate adult clothing. And nowadays, when I meet a group of Americans in cheap Asia-made Lederhosen screaming "o-ans, zwo-a, gsuffa", I can only roll my eyes.