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Oktoberfest at JSCSC
LtCol Rene Urbach and LtCdr Sophie Waterstradt
SERVUS, ALL. ON 11TH October 2022, ACSC 26 was more than happy to welcome everyone to the ‘Oktoberfest 2022’. After the overwhelming success of last year’s event, it was obvious that this year’s event needed to live up to that success.
The actual ‘Oktoberfest’ has taken place since 1810 on the Theresienwiese in Munich, the Bavarian capital. It is the world’s largest beer or folk festival with more than 6 million visitors during the 16-day period. In the Bavarian language the Oktoberfest is mostly called “Wiesn” which is a short form of Theresienwiese – the location of the original ‘Oktoberfest.’ The festival starts with the tapping of
a barrel which takes place at 12 o’clock on day one and is done by the mayor
of Munich in a traditional manner. It is always a challenge to see how many hits the mayor needs to succeed in tapping the barrel.
Even though the schedule of our ‘Oktoberfest’ looked a little different from the original, our guests managed to create a great atmosphere with their original clothing ‘Dirndl and Lederhosen’ and their excellent mood.
With the support of the JSCSC staff we were able to provide our guests with
an original German menu ‘Brezel and Bratwurst’ and traditional beer. Normally the beer is served in Mass, which is an abbreviation for the Masskrug – the handled drinking vessel containing exactly 1 litre of beer. But for our event
“The festival starts with
the tapping of a barrel which takes place at 12 o’clock
at the JSCSC we provided the guest with Steins that had the capacity of a pint which is approximately half the size of the original one. However, during the competition phase of the evening we provided the participants with Steins of the original size to allow them to get a feeling how heavy one Mass can be if you need to hold it as long as possible. Just as a side fact, the waitresses on the ‘Oktoberfest’ in Munich can carry
between seven and twelve Mass at the same time. That means that they carry a weight of 16 to 27 kilograms – and do so several times in one evening.
For ACSC 26 and the ‘Oktoberfest 2022’ at the JSCSC, we tried to deliver this German-Bavarian feeling into the Cormorant Building. One decisive aspect was the live music as well.
Just as the music on the ‘Oktoberfest’