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Tall mugs or whole kegs of light, monastery, black, fruit and all kinds of beers and beer cocktails welcome Athenians to the beer fest Oktoberfest 2010. This year the festival is held from September 22 to October 10 and following the 11-year tradition offers a lot of beer emotions. I meet Kristos Manolopoulos, one of the founders of Oktoberfest in Athens, in the festival club in the district of Agia Paraskevi. Kristos talks about the idea of the beer fest in Germany and his desire the Oktoberfest in Athens to resemble the Oktoberfest in Munich. "You know the history of the festival in Germany, right?" – asked he at the beginning of our conversation. “Yes” - answered I after I have looked at the website of the festival in advance. And here it is. Everything started back in 1810 when on October 17^th the successor to the Bavarian throne, Prince Ludwig I, married Princess Therese of Saxony. The wedding took place on a meadow, which in honour of the bride was subsequently called "Theresienwiese". All the people had great fun on this meadow that the whole party lasted 16 days. That is how the tradition of the October festival was born. The first beer houses on "Theresienwiese"were built in 1815 and the visitors reached 60,000. The fame of the place and the beer was growing gradually and in 1935 there were more than 100 000 visitors and 240 000 liters of beer were drank up ...

Today, after 185 years of existence, the Oktoberfest in Munich is the largest and most famous beer festival in the world. 7 million visitors drink more than 6 million liters of beer. This means that someone drinks a pint of beer every 3 seconds.

Though in Athens, Kristos Manolopoulos managed to add the atmosphere of the German festival. The Oktoberfest restaurant offers rare beers – the ones that are served only at the festival in Munich. There is plenty of beer on the typical German wooden tables as well as typical German delicacies. Würstl, roast pork roll stuffed with beacon and pickles, pork legs in beer sauce, delicious pretzel and what not.
 
The Oktoberfest in Athens organizes drinking beer competition every year. Dozens of beer fans try their best to drink one liter of beer as quickly as possible. The dates of this year's competition will be announced soon, so there is still a chance for those who want to measure swards.

There will be a Happy Hour for those who want not only to hit a heavy toast with beer, but to drink the beer to the bottom of the keg. The Happy Hour is every day from 19.00 to 20.00 when all the kegs are half priced...

 
Oktoberfest Athens

Agia Paraskevi, 82, Aghiou Ioannou Str.

Tel.: 210 60 82 999

www.oktoberfest.gr