Oktoberfest: Too Good to Be True?

Looks like Radius is booking/reselling lunch tables (which are easier to come by) but you won't need to book with them for just one person. If you are by yourself and going on the first Monday of the fest, you will have no problem getting into a tent and having a beer if you go just after lunch. I've done this many, many times without reservations. You just go in at lunch and ask if you can join a table that looks like they have empty seats. I've never been turned down at lunch as the tent are usually full of reservations made by local companies so their employees can have a Wies'n day so it's a bit tamer and not as crowded. It's not uncommon to find completely empty tables after 1pm when everyone goes back to work and then 5pm crowd hasn't arrived yet.

I'd also suggest checking out the Toytown Germany Forums for advice on getting into a tent:

As reservations are only possible for groups of six upwards, here is some free advice:

You should not have a big problem getting into one of the tents on most evenings (except Friday or Saturday) if there's only two or four of you. March up to the main or side entrance (if they don't have the signs up "Wegen Überfüllung geschlossen"), go inside and ask politely if you can join a party already at a table in the non-reserved section ("Ist hier noch Platz?"). Or just show two or four fingers and point at the table.

You'll be surprised how quickly you'll make new friends.

Sunday is generally more quiet than the other evenings, the out-of-towners are gone, it's the one evening the Fest belongs to Munich again. Friday and Saturday are almost but not quite hopeless.

If you do have to wait in the crowd, be clean, polite and sober. The doormen generally can estimate the alcohol level of applicants and are pretty strict about not letting drunken sots into the tents. Don't beg or whine, give them a friendly smile and stay patient. Keep on holding up your fingers so that they always know how many people are in your party.

DJ

Yes, you don't need a tour to get in and find a tent for a week day afternoon in my experience. Table reservations are made for big groups, often corporate, beginning early evening. You can sit at these tables at least until the reservation time indicated on the table. In practice, I talked to their group leader when they first arrived and she said relax and have another mass because it would be at least another hour before she expected the lion's share of her group to arrive. Then we wandered around until we found another table with two empty spots and they immediately became our "best friend for life". Or at least until we staggered out to catch our night train.
So I don't think you need to pay extra. The beer is expensive enough to begin with.

Lauren, I don't know where you are from, but have you ever been to a state fair? That is what Oktoberfest reminds me of - the world's largest state fair. I can't imagine paying 120 euro for someone to guide you around the carnival rides, souvenir stands, and pretzel vendors, even with half a chicken and two unnecessarily large beers included.

You might be expecting a much more formal, controlled event than we found. The tents are enormous - much too enormous for anyone sober enough to notice us walking in and asking us if we had reservations. There are hundreds of church-social folding tables, some reserved by large groups for part (but not all day). Somewhere in the middle, a band might be playing, and small knots of people drunkenly singing along, but hardly enough to keep you interested for five hours - unless you actually drank those two liters of beer.

We (4 of us) were there on a Monday afternoon (2 years ago). The tents were less than half full, and we walked right into each of the tents before choosing the one at which we wanted to eat. Nobody cared where we sat, which was at a table that was marked reserved (for later in the evening we were told). Maybe evenings would be a different story.

PS we walked right into the fairgrounds from the metro stop, so needed no help getting there either. We actually found the Hofbrauhaus downtown to be more fun.

That was my experience anyway. Hope others share their thoughts.

It looks like I was stressing out WAY too much! It is just two of us and we will be going on a weekday afternoon. It seems the consensus is that we will be just fine showing up! We will be there Sunday-Tuesday and had originally planned to go Monday (for no reason in particular) but if Sunday afternoon is a good time, maybe we will do that instead. Thank you all so much!

Although I didn't post the topic, thanks for all the response! We will be in Munich September 24th - 29th. Our plan is to just wander the tents either Monday or Tuesday of our days there. It's on the husbands bucket list and by coincidence will will be there. Yippee!

You can tour the site on your own (a little research might be handy), and the Ferris Wheel can't be that expensive. If it's as easy to get into a table in the afternoon as everyone says, then you're paying $135 for two beers and a half a chicken!

Two of you just showing up on a weekday afternoon will be fine . Been there, done that, no problems.

Was there last year. There were just two of us. Went to the festival on three consecutive days. No problem getting a table. We either were by ourselves or added to a group that had two extra seats. Fun making new friends.
Have a great time!