Oktoberfest celebrations will soon be breaking out everywhere from Cincinnati to Tokyo, complete with overflowing beer steins, bratwurst, lederhosen and more polka music than most people need for the rest of the year.

But there is only one Munich Oktoberfest.

The original returns to Munich’s legendary Theresienwiese on September 19 and runs through October 4, 2026, bringing millions of visitors to Bavaria for what remains the largest folk festival in the world.

And yes, there will be beer.

Lots and lots of beer.

It All Started With A Wedding

For an event now synonymous with beer, Oktoberfest didn’t actually begin as a beer festival.

It began with a royal wedding.

On October 12, 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, who would later become King Ludwig I, married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Rather than keeping things behind palace walls, Munich’s citizens were invited to join the festivity, which culminated five days later with a massive horse race held on a meadow just outside the city gates.

The celebration was such a success that they decided to do it again the following year, and an institution was born.

The original meadow was named Theresienwiese in honor of the bride. More than two centuries later, Oktoberfest is still held on the same grounds, which locals simply call the “Wiesn.”

Beer tents weren’t even part of the first Oktoberfest. Those came later, as beer vendors and eventually Munich’s major breweries became increasingly central to the celebration.

By the end of the 19th century, enormous tented beer halls began to replace the smaller beer stalls. And today those massive tents are as much a symbol of Oktoberfest as the polka music and one-liter glass mugs.

Why Oktoberfest Starts In September

One of Oktoberfest’s enduring mysteries, at least to Americans encountering it for the first time, is why a festival called Oktoberfest takes place mostly in September.

There’s actually a pretty practical explanation.

The original celebration was held in October, but as the festival grew during the 19th century, organizers began moving its start date earlier to take advantage of September’s longer days and generally warmer weather.

The modern Oktoberfest generally begins in mid-to-late September and concludes on the first Sunday in October.

The 2026 edition officially begins at noon on Saturday, September 19, when Munich’s mayor taps the first keg in the Schottenhamel tent and declares “O’zapft is!” or “It’s tapped!”

At that point, it is ON, the beer starts flowing across the festival grounds and doesn’t stop until October 4.

The Biggest Beer Party On Earth

Calling Oktoberfest a beer festival doesn’t really capture the scale of this event

Today’s Wiesn is an enormous celebration of Bavarian culture featuring massive beer halls, traditional music, parades, carnival rides, games, food stalls and an amusement park that would be a major attraction all by itself.

Roughly six million people typically attend, and somewhere between six and seven million liters of beer are consumed during an average Oktoberfest.

That’s roughly 1.6 to 1.85 million gallons of beer.

And it isn’t served in those little craft beer sampling glasses either.

Oktoberfest beer is traditionally served in a massive one-liter glass mug that has become as iconic as  the festival itself.

But drinking one won’t be cheap in 2026. A liter of beer at this year’s Oktoberfest generally runs between €14.80 and €15.90, or roughly $17 to $18.50 U.S., depending on the tent.

About That Oktoberfest Beer

Here’s where Oktoberfest gets particularly interesting for American beer drinkers.

The amber-colored Märzen remains the beer most Americans associate with Oktoberfest season. American craft breweries release dozens of them every fall, and for good reason. Märzen has deep historical ties to the festival.

But that’s generally not what you’ll find in Munich today.

Modern Munich Oktoberfest beer is typically a paler, stronger golden lager commonly described as Festbier. It’s malt-forward without being heavy, crisp enough for serious session drinking and generally lands around 6% ABV.

The shift away from darker Märzen-style festival beers happened gradually during the second half of the 20th century as Munich brewers moved toward a lighter-colored and more drinkable beer suited to consuming by the liter.

That distinction explains why an American Oktoberfest beer and the beer actually served at Munich’s Oktoberfest can look surprisingly different.

Both traditions have legitimate historical connections to the festival. They’ve simply evolved in distinct directions.

Only Six Breweries Make The Cut

Unlike Oktoberfest celebrations in the states, you can’t just show up at the Munich grounds and start pouring.

Beer served at the Wiesn comes from six historic Munich breweries: Augustiner-Bräu, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu München, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten, and all of them must have active production facilities in the city.

The requirement is part tradition, part civic identity and part fiercely protected beer culture. Oktoberfest is, after all, a Munich festival, and its beer is Munich beer.

Those six breweries also bring some serious history with them.

Augustiner traces its origins to 1328 and is Munich’s oldest existing brewery. Spaten dates to 1397, Hacker-Pschorr’s history reaches back to 1417, Hofbräu was founded as a ducal brewery in 1589, and Paulaner traces its brewing heritage to 1634.

Löwenbräu’s origins are generally placed in the late 14th century, although the Löwenbräu name doesn’t appear in Munich’s brewing records until the 18th century.

So when you drink at Oktoberfest, you’re drinking beer from breweries that in some cases were already making beer more than a century before Columbus crossed the Atlantic.

And Augustiner takes tradition even further. It’s the only one of the six that still serves its Oktoberfest beer from traditional 200-liter wooden barrels at the Wiesn.

There’s another important distinction that many American beer drinkers probably don’t know.

“Oktoberfestbier” isn’t merely a catchy seasonal beer name in Europe. Since 2022 it has carried the European Union’s Protected Geographical Indication designation, meaning authentic Oktoberfestbier must be brewed in Munich according to established specifications and be the beer served at the Munich festival.

More Than Two Centuries And Still Going

Oktoberfest hasn’t run uninterrupted since 1810.

Wars, economic turmoil and cholera forced cancellations over the years, and the festival was most recently shut down in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But its ability to return is part of what makes Oktoberfest remarkable.

What began as a five-day wedding celebration and horse race outside the gates of Munich more than two centuries ago has grown into a global cultural phenomenon.

Six breweries. Millions of visitors. Millions of liters of beer. Sixteen days of Bavarian excess on the same meadow where a prince married a princess in 1810.

And more than 200 years later, the wedding reception is still going strong.