I will be traveling to the Stuttgart Beer Festival (locally known as Cannstatter Volksfest) in early October. It is second in scale (about 4 million visitors during the festival) to Munich's Oktoberfest. Similar format to Oktoberfest with festival fairgrounds and multiple beer tents. Any advice regarding your favorite tents and other sites to see in Stuggart is appreciated.
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
7570 posts
I do not recall the different tents, or at least differences, but I know we were able to wander around, take a look, and get into a tent easily to sit and have a good time, and this was in the evening. Be aware though, just like Oktoberfest, opening weekend will be packed, during the week will have much more manageable crowds.
The atmosphere is much better than Oktoberfest, while people are having a great time, you have many fewer of the groups that are out to get totally wasted and rowdy.
The main draw to Stuttgart for most people are the car museums, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. There are several decent art museums, and several historic buildings, but overall, it feels more modern than "quaint old German city". It was heavily bombed during WW2 and rebuilt, it is also spread out more than other German cities, or at least it seems to me.
Posted by
19 posts
We were at Volksfest just last year. Really enjoyed it. As another poster mentioned, I'd try to hit the fest on a weekday. The tents were still mostly full (to get you the overall "fest vibe"), but not packed to the gills where they had to turn people away. Volksfest is more of a local's fest (if you can call it that) - there were definitely tourists and service people from the nearby military bases, but the vast majority were Germans. Most Americans (even beer nerds) have never heard of it. We were also surprised by the number of people who fully enbraced traditional trackten in a non-ironic way. Besides the tents, which all serve a limited selection of pretty much the same style of beer, the carnival/fair area also has plenty of beer booths that serve other options, like some hefeweisen you don't normally see in the area. Just wander from tent to tent until you find the music/celebration vibe that appeals to you. One tent will have tradional music, while another will have a band playing mostly over the top American cover tunes, and a 3rd will have a local celebrity of varying skill level. Just order to mass of beer, stand on a bench with everyone else and sing along. And do not drive - there's an easy and safe tram that drops you off right at the entrance.
For other sites, the city center has a very nice indoor food market. The Stuttgart art museum was worth a stop, even if they lament the loss of some of their collection during WWII and subsequent efforts at recovery, while glossing over how Germany plundered the rest of Europe during the same period. It may sound lame, but we really enjoyed visiting pumpkinfest at the nearby Ludwigsburg Palace. Like a much smaller version of the Pasadena Rose Bowl parade, if it was made for pumpkins and hosted at a palace. Also keep an eye out for regional harvest or wine festivals. We stumbled upon a wine fest in a small town on the Rhine that was one of the hightlights of our trip.
Posted by
OP
Northwest Arkansas
211 posts
Paul and RobertS,
Thank you for your detailed replies. I am going on a Friday day/evening over the last weekend as this is the best for my travel schedule. On Saturday I will see the sites within Stuttgart. My hotel is very close to the Porsche Musuem and I will be going there if jet lag is OK.
James