TOPSHOT – A waitress serves beer in the Hofbraeu tent during the opening of the 190th Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, southern Germany on September 20, 2025. The world’s biggest beer festival Oktoberfest runs until October 5, 2025. (Photo by MICHAELA STACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

Mention Oktoberfest and a few things probably come to mind: giant steins of beer, lederhosen, brass bands, pretzels and enormous tents filled with thousands of people.

Funny enough, none of those things are why Oktoberfest exists.

The world’s most famous beer festival actually started with a wedding. And the main event wasn’t drinking. It was horse racing.

Over the next two centuries, that royal wedding celebration slowly morphed into the massive Munich party we know today. Along the way, it picked up beer tents, carnival rides, roast chicken and plenty of traditions that seem centuries old but actually aren’t.

Here’s how a wedding afterparty became one of the biggest drinking events on the planet.

It all goes back to 1810, when Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

The couple tied the knot on October 12, but Bavaria wasn’t going to let a royal wedding end after one night. Munich residents were invited to join several days of festivities, culminating in a horse race on October 17 on fields just outside the city’s gates.

People apparently had a pretty good time.

The horse race returned the following year, helping turn what could have been a one-off celebration into an annual tradition.

The festival grounds were named Theresienwiese, or “Therese’s Meadow,” after the bride. More than 200 years later, Oktoberfest still happens there. Locals typically shorten the name to “Wiesn,” which is also what you’ll often hear people in Munich call Oktoberfest.

So, technically, you can thank Princess Therese’s wedding for all those one-liter beers.

The first Oktoberfest would be almost unrecognizable to someone walking into the festival today.

An agricultural fair was added in 1811 to showcase Bavarian farming. The first carousel and swings showed up a few years later in 1818, laying the groundwork for the sprawling carnival that now accompanies all that beer.

The famous beer tents themselves took considerably longer.

For much of the 19th century, beer was served from relatively modest stands. Those gradually grew into larger halls and tents as crowds increased and breweries became more involved.

By the turn of the 20th century, the beer halls were becoming a defining part of the experience.

Today, they’re arguably the defining part.

Some of Oktoberfest’s largest tents can hold thousands of people at once, with servers carrying staggering numbers of one-liter beer mugs through packed crowds.

The horse racing that started the whole thing? That’s mostly gone.

Even the beer has changed.

For years, Oktoberfest was closely associated with Märzen, the amber-colored German lager traditionally brewed in March and stored through the summer.

That’s still what many Americans picture when they order an Oktoberfest beer.

But head to Munich and you’ll generally find something different in your mug.

Modern Oktoberfest beer is typically Festbier, a paler, crisp lager designed to be dangerously easy to drink by the liter.

And just because a brewery makes an “Oktoberfest” beer doesn’t mean it can pour it at the actual Oktoberfest.

Only beer brewed in Munich that meets the festival’s requirements can be served at the Wiesn. That leaves six Munich breweries pouring the official stuff: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu München, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten.

Beer comes in a Maß, the traditional one-liter mug.

That’s roughly 34 ounces of beer at a time, so pace yourself accordingly.

Then there’s the name.

If you’re planning an Oktoberfest trip to Munich, waiting until October is not a particularly good strategy.

The original festivities happened in October, hence the name. But organizers eventually shifted the start into September for a simple reason: The weather is generally better.

September offered warmer temperatures and longer days, both of which are pretty useful when you’re trying to convince millions of people to hang out at an outdoor festival.

The October name stuck.

In 2026, Munich’s Oktoberfest runs from September 19 through October 4.

By the time Halloween decorations start going up in the U.S., Munich has already packed away the beer tents.

Opening day brings one of Oktoberfest’s most famous traditions.

At noon, Munich’s mayor taps the first barrel of beer inside the Schottenhamel tent and declares “O’zapft is!”, essentially “It’s tapped.”

Only then can the beer start flowing across the festival. It feels like a ceremony that must date back to Ludwig and Therese.

Not even close.

The tradition began in 1950, when Munich Mayor Thomas Wimmer tapped the inaugural keg.

And “tapped” might be generous. Wimmer reportedly needed 17 blows to get the job done.

Modern mayors have become considerably more efficient, and the number of swings it takes to tap the barrel has become something of an opening-day sport in its own right.

For a festival that’s more than two centuries old, Oktoberfest has had its share of interruptions.

Wars, economic crises and disease have repeatedly forced Munich to cancel or modify the celebration.

World War I and World War II caused extended interruptions. In some difficult years surrounding the wars, Munich held smaller autumn festivals instead.

More recently, COVID-19 wiped Oktoberfest off the calendar in both 2020 and 2021. The beer finally started flowing again in 2022.

The festival’s history also includes tragedy. In 1980, a bomb exploded near Oktoberfest’s main entrance, killing 12 visitors and the attacker and injuring more than 200 others. A memorial near the site honors the victims.

Somewhere along the way, Oktoberfest stopped being just a Munich event and became an entire season.

Oktoberfest celebrations now pop up everywhere from Cincinnati to Brazil. Breweries release seasonal beers bearing the name every fall, while bars and restaurants roll out pretzels, sausages and steins as soon as September arrives.

But Munich’s version remains distinctly Bavarian.

Oktoberfest is technically a Volksfest, or folk festival, rather than simply a beer festival. Beer is obviously a huge part of the equation, but so are food, rides, music, parades and Bavarian traditions.

And that’s what makes its evolution so interesting.

Nobody sat down in 1810 and decided to create the world’s most famous beer festival.

Instead, a royal wedding led to a horse race. The horse race became an annual celebration. Simple food and beer stands became massive tents. A few swings and a carousel evolved into a full-blown amusement park. And a local Munich tradition became an international shorthand for drinking beer in very large glasses.

More than two centuries later, the wedding is mostly a historical footnote.

The afterparty is still going strong.