Oktoberfest

I had the pleasure to attend this years Oktoberfest in Munich together with a few fellow MySQL'rs.

Per Wikimedia, "the event traditionally takes place during the 16 days up to and including the first Sunday in October"...so maybe it should be called Septemberfest anyway...

It is an impressive sight and the numbers are huge. Over 6 million 1L mugs are consumed, I did my best with 5 or so but still lost the volume race to my MySQL friend (who is counting at that point anyway).

We had our specific time table (punt intended) reserved for a 2 1/2 hour window in the Hippodrome, which is a very cool tent, but not really a tent anyway, it's a rather permanently looking structure. We did manage to shoehorn in over 20 people at three tiny tables so things do get close, shoulders rubbing and glasses ...

The Münchner Zwietracht played all evening long and the noise level is huge from the combined chatter, singing and contiguous umpa bumpa...

One overall summary: though enormous amounts of alcohol was consumed, not just beer, with some 1/2 million chickens and other food items; yet I didnt see a single incident where it got out of hands or people acting badly. It truly is just a big huge overextended yourself voluminous party with nothing but happy smiling faces and folks packed together like sardines. Now that was impressive. We should learn something from that somehow.

In summary, it was a blast, I have recovered now and Im ready for next year already....Prost!

ulf