Oktoberfest 2010 – The Grand Parade

One week to Oktoberfest!

The Grand Parade of festival publicans and breweries on 18 September 2010 marks the merry start to this year‘s official Oktoberfest.

Starting at 10.50 a.m., the procession will take about an hour as it wends its way from Sonnenstrasse to the Theresienwiese festival grounds.

The parade features the families of the festival publicans in carriages adorned with flowers, waitresses waving beer mugs on festively decorated floats, the brass bands that play in the beer tents and horse-drawn carts representing the Munich breweries, beautifully turned out and carrying garlanded beer barrels.

The Oktoberfest performers, market stallholders and serving staff of the smaller beer tents will also arrive on a decorated float. In total, there will be about 1,000 people taking part in this spectacle.

The procession, which dates back to 1887, will be led by the ‘Munich child’ mascot on horseback, traditionally followed by the city‘s Mayor in a festival carriage.