Munich Oktoberfest - warm up follies

Leading up to the 2 weeks and 3 weekends of traditional buzz during the Wies'n, there are quite a lot "Wies'n Warm Up Parties". At those bashes the theme, dresscode, music and food are, as expected, Bavarian Dirndl/Lederhosen style.

Nothing surprising so far, but today I stumbled across yet another pug dog story linked to Oktoberfest and the related Warm Up Parties. Remember, in 2010 a poor little puppy ended up in the lost and found office.

This year a quite fancy Wies'n Warm Up Pug Dog Party was organized. 74 female pug dog owners payed 100 € to enter the event, themselves dressed in rather exotic Dirndl and botox, their dogs in Lederhosen. Makes for an unforgetable group picture! Host of the event was dog "Sir Henry" and his dog-mommy Uschi Ackermann. (The two even have their own homepage.)

During the event some German folk singer performed his new Wies'n hit song called "Scharfe Möpse". For all the non-German-readers here, that translates into either "Spicy pug dogs" or, using more colloquial German language, into "Hot bo*bs". Hmmm yeah, one hell of a classy party entertainment I'd say...

Sir Henry himself

But not enough with the pugs. Her significant other is Gerd Käfer, owner of a successful gourmet food business in Munich and the dog fever in combination with Oktoberfest must have gotten also to him rather severely. While she was organizing the party, Mr. Käfer wrote recipes with Bavarian culinary specialities for - yes, who else- dogs! I'll try to find out if those cook instructions with names like PUG DOG SUSHI (is it just me or does that more sound like a sliced up puppy??)or WOOF PIZZA are bestsellers...

Bavarian pug dog (the gourmet, not the ingredient!) recipes

I can just agree with the author of a southern German newspaper who asks himself, if there is no limit to the lunacy grasping people as Oktoberfest time approaches.

Munich Oktoberfest in numbers

This year's Oktoberfest, or "Wies'n" as the locals call it, is coming up.

For quite a while now it hasn't just been a local thing anymore, people from all over the world come to say "Prost!" and "Mahlzeit!" which results in some crazy numbers:

• 95 gastronomical companies feed the visitors

• Oktoberfest employs 8.000 fixed and 4.000 changing workers

• the biggest tent is the "Hofbräuzelt" with 10.000 seats available (including the beergarden)
• all in all there are 14 big tents and 21 little ones (the smallest has 60 seats available) and together they offer 105.000 seats

 

 2011

• had 6.9 million visitors
• 7.5 million liters of beer (Maß) were consumed 
• 522.821 chicken and
• 118 oxen were eaten
• 4.750 things landed in the lost and found office including a Viking's helmet and some fake teeth

Wies'n Hendl

entrance of a tent called "oxen roaster"

even crazier: in the previous year 2010 the same office had to deal with a pug dog, a bunny, riding crops oh hello Christian Grey! and more hearing aids and fake teeth.

the poor dog found in 2010 - who would even bring one to Oktoberfest?!

 

200 people ask here for their lost phone DAILY!

against firm beliefs...

This won't be the only post about Dirndl.

Because

1. 50 % of The mashup mission is right now on a trip to Canada and New York City. With her Dirndl and she's commited to wear it. We'll see the pictures soon!
2. We live in South Tyrol and I grew up in Munich. Even though - against kept firm beliefs abroad - we're not wearing a Dirndl everyday, we do own and wear them on a regular basis. Mountain parties, traditional festivities, Oktoberfest and other suitable events call for the traditional dress.
3. A friend from Munich is a Dirndl & Accessoire Designer and she's awesome. In fact I love her creative designs so much, that I'm planning a whole post just about her. And no, she's not paying for it. (Her creations were in InStyle and on official Oktoberfest pages.)
4. It's "interesting" to see, what idea North Americans usually have, when they think about a Dirndl. Halloween is all I'm saying.
5. Oktoberfest-season is coming up and we should all be well prepared :)

here's a little sneak peek:

[from] 

and here the shocker
from a Canadian costumes onlineshop, linked on a
 Canadian "quality Oktoberfest costumes" page...

seriously?? [from]

***

10 random mashup challenges to begin with

Challenge n° 10:

Take that: the speed limit on Canadian highways is 100 km/h. And they`re built so wide and spacey that in Italy you would fit five cars next to each other on one lane. Not that I exactly miss being passed on the right side, but being a criminal for going over a 100 km/h?

I can literally hear some of you sigh right now, thinking what a wonderful life it would be without any discussions about insane speeding with the beloved driver and ...oh no, dear speed-lovers, dont pale and worry, I haven't heard of any plans to introduce these limits in Europe any time soon! Relax, there's still the car industry to protect you...

 

Talking about driving habits: sooner or later I`ll for sure indulge in writing about my first experiences with a BIG truck in Canada. And parking it. Or driving a car with a German license plate on a mountain road in South Tyrol. Italian campers cramming Munich’s city streets around Oktoberfest time. Danish patience and toll-station-wack-outs.  Another time.