What Is Oktoberfest and Who Celebrates It in Texas?

Oktoberfest is the world's most famous beer festival, and is thought to have begun in the Bavarian region of Munich, Germany. It is usually celebrated from September through the first weekend in October even though the name Oktoberfest has led many to believe it is an October-only event.

With Oktoberfest, the Bavarian culture celebrates its music, food, and of course, beer. The history of the festival goes back to October 12, 1810, when Crown Prince Ludwig (who would later become King Ludwig I) of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.

To celebrate their marriage, a horse race was organized near Munich's city gates. This horse race was so successful and well-received by the people of Munich that they decided to repeat the event the following year, marking the beginning of what would become Oktoberfest.

From 1810 until today, the celebration has evolved in size and culture. While horse racing is not done here in America, the original Oktoberfest festivities were replaced with other things throughout the years like agricultural fairs, local trade exhibitions, and eventually the beer that many breweries in Munich were manufacturing.

Oktoberfest is now celebrated all throughout Texas, and typically includes beer and some hearty Bavarian cuisine, like sausages, pretzels, roast chicken, and sauerkraut, among other dishes.

These are but a few regional 2023 Oktoberfests:

In Abilene, Grain Theory's Oktoberfest is scheduled for October 7.
Clyde's Oktoberfest is scheduled for Oct 14-15 and will bring German-style folk performers for two days of traditional German singing, dancing, yodeling, bell ringing, bratwurst, and more. For more information, call 325.893.4234.
San Angelo's Elktoberfest is scheduled for Oct 7.
San Antonio's Oktoberfest is scheduled for Oct 6-7 and Oct 13-14.
Southlake's Oktoberfest is scheduled for Oct 13-15.
Bronte's Bronteoberfest is scheduled for Oct 21.
For New Braunfels' celebration of German heritage, visit Wurstfest (Nov 3-12).
And of course, Fredericksburg! Click here and here (Oct 6-8).

You can tap on the highlighted links for more info. Guten tag!

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LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood

Filed Under: oktoberfest, party, texas

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