We're planning a trip to Germany and want to stay in the Black Forest area. We also want to experience a couple of days of Oktoberfest before we come back home. Any suggestions on a village in the Black Forest area that does Oktoberfest right, so we don't have to go to any of those large cities like Munich?
Thanks
Posted by
Paradise
6623 posts
Oktoberfest is Munich. Other festivals exist however:
This one near Stuttgart is pretty close to the BF:
Canstatter Volksfest
This one is a bit further north; I was there many years ago and had a good time:
Bad Dürkheims sausage market
And in the Rhine villages between Koblenz and Bingen there are festivals every weekend in September; check Bacharach, St. Goar, Boppard and Oberwesel.
Posted by
Florida, USA
12172 posts
I really enjoyed Bonnfest. Not as close as Stuttgart, however.
My observations:
Munich is "the" Oktoberfest. Others are better in many ways but they aren't "the" fest.
The beer tent at Bonn fest had two stages so there was continuous music, one oompah band and one rock band (that played about 80-90 % Abba to the delight of the crowd). At Oktoberfest, the oompah band plays for awhile, then takes a break.
The Bonnfest also goes all night. I left at 4 am and it was still going strong. I didn't appreciate it until we were unceremoniously "swept" out of Oktoberfest at 10:30 pm.
Bonnfest allows you to get a beer without being seated, a strict no-no in Munich. Bonnfest was also easy-going about people standing on the tables singing along with the band.
Another nice feature at Bonnfest was the generations of German families in the tent. Teenagers sat with their parents and grandparents (aunts, uncles and cousins) which was decidedly different from the crowd of tourists in Munich. Of course Asians in lederhosen and dirndls is interesting too.
Oktoberfest also has many severly drunk people being literally carted away by EMTs which I didn't notice at Bonnfest.