At 8:00 a.m. on the first day of Oktoberfest 2026, Feli from Germany was already standing in a line that stretched far enough behind her to make her feel only ‘a little bit crazy.’ Some people at the main entrance had been there since 4:00 p.m. the day before. For anyone who has ever wondered what it actually takes to secure a seat inside one of Munich’s legendary beer tents on the most competitive morning of the year, this is the answer: you show up in the dark, you bring snacks, and you make peace with card games until noon.
The group that morning included Ben, Timo, and Josh, all catching the subway to Theresienwiese, the festival grounds whose name translates to Theresa’s Meadow. Along the way, they spotted the first horse-drawn carriages assembling for the parade, a marching band moving through the streets, and dozens of waitstaff in traditional dress heading toward the grounds. The sky was clear and the temperature held around 22 degrees Celsius, roughly 70 degrees Fahrenheit, for the entire day.
Getting inside the Hacker-Pschorr tent before things got truly chaotic
Rather than fighting toward the main entrance, the group looped around to a secondary gate and found the scene more manageable than expected. The tapping ceremony, where the mayor of Munich strikes the first barrel of beer to officially open the festival, always takes place at the Schottenhamel tent, making it nearly impossible to get a seat there. Feli steered everyone instead toward the Hacker-Pschorr tent, one of her personal favorites.
Once inside, the relative calm of the entrance evaporated. The tent was already packed wall to wall, and the group squeezed in by joining strangers at a shared table. Beer service would not begin until noon, leaving roughly two and a half hours to fill. They played bid euchre, a card game Josh introduced to the group. The final score was not close: Feli and Josh finished with 38 points while Timo and Ben, playing as ‘team Bimo,’ ended on minus six.
At 10:00 a.m., the tent began serving non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. Feli stepped outside briefly to catch the Einzug der Wiesnwirte, the parade where the tent owners arrive with the beer, though she noted that most tents now pipe their supply in through underground pipelines.
Two strikes and the party was officially underway
Just before noon, the new mayor of Munich, who had taken office in May, tapped the first barrel at the Schottenhamel tent in just two strikes. The first beer by tradition goes to Markus Soeder, the state premier of Bavaria. Inside the Hacker-Pschorr tent, the group listened for the 12 gunshots that signal the official start. Then the beer came out, slowly at first, because the waitstaff here are technically self-employed: they buy the beer from the tent with their own money and sell it to guests at a profit, which means every round involves its own small queue at the drink station.
When the first mugs finally arrived, the band started playing and the afternoon opened up. Josh had to leave, but his friends Lockland from Australia and Tim from Sweden joined the table. Later, Ben and Lockland ran a shooting contest that Feli described as USA versus Australia. Tim, meanwhile, absolutely dominated at the strongman hammer game near the fairground rides.
Feli and her brother rode the Olympia Looping roller coaster, the largest portable roller coaster in the world, a tradition from their childhood when they rode it every year at the festival.
The pretzel counter at the bakery inside the Hacker-Pschorr tent
The bakery counter along the interior wall, where Feli and Timo grabbed a quick snack while the a la carte service was still backed up, was stacked with fresh pretzels and pastries in the middle of a packed afternoon.
By the time the group finally headed home, everyone reported feeling pretty good, if tired. Feli’s voice was audibly rough by her own admission. Back at the apartment, Ben and Timo settled into the new FIFA game while Feli got some time in with Izzy the cat. The first day was done, and with two more weeks of Oktoberfest still ahead, she was already planning a return.
