We want to visit Rothenburg while we are in Munich. However, the Meistertrunk Festival will be going on May 22-24. We have the option to go on May 21, the day before the festival (but it will be the first full day off the plane). Does anyone know about the environment for the festival days? If is it a drunken party, then I don't care to go especially since we will have our 4 teenager kids with us. I would appreciate any information, resources or experience that you would have to offer.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33852 posts
When I was there for the festival a few years ago it was crowded but not drunken. Some of the horse riders were very drunk but they had to be, after all it is the Meistertrunk. As they stopped at each pub all around town they were given a drink to down an they had to go to all of them. I had sympathy for the horses because they had drunken riders jumping on and off them quite a lot and some of those guys hadn't been on a diet for a while.
As drunk as the riders were, and as poorly as some them behaved I saw absolutely nothing adverse in the crowds at all.
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
I have not attended this event, but I see that online marketing promotes a family atmosphere. A few wine festivals that I've enjoyed in Germany I considered to be quite neighborly and well organized.
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9222 posts
Festivals in Germany are family friendly and except for the Oktoberfest are not places where people get sloppy drunk. They drink wine, maybe beer, maybe something else. They sit at tables with each other, eat great food, maybe dance if there is music, chat with each other, make new friends sitting at their fest table, and it is all very congenial and lively. It isn't something that you would need to worry about taking your teens to.