The Best Oktoberfest Celebrations in the World
Age alone sets the rank on these Oktoberfest celebrations from around the world, oldest first. Vote a younger celebration over an older one on a better measure. Every entry prints the year the rank uses, taken from that celebration's own linked article and from nothing else. Where two share that year, the vote decides between them. Tier one is that year before 1970, and tier two is 1970 or after. What a celebration has to clear is where the desk's claim lies, starting with an English Wikipedia article of its own whose opening sentence names it, plus either a place on two of the four round-ups counted here by masthead (National Geographic, GetYourGuide, Trip.com, Daily Passport) or a crowd figure of 100,000 or more in that article. It also has to be an Oktoberfest by name, or by its article or a counted round-up calling it a version of the original. Host-city articles and hub pages are out. Dates move around every year, so confirm the calendar before booking.
Oktoberfest (Munich) is #1 on “The Best Oktoberfest Celebrations in the World”.
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Oktoberfest (Munich)
A royal wedding in 1810 got it started: Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen, and the first Oktoberfest was held on 12 October that year to celebrate it. Since 1994 the run has typically lasted 16 days, ending on the first Sunday in October, which is the reason most of what people call Oktoberfest happens in September. Its article counts around seven million visitors a year, and a record 7.2 million in 2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest - 2
Cannstatter Volksfest (Stuttgart)
Famine put this one on the calendar, after the volcanic winter from Mount Tambora's 1815 eruption ruined harvests. King Wilhelm I answered with an agricultural celebration on a meadow by the Neckar on 28 September 1818, its Fruit Column piled with donated grain. The opening sentence calls it a Volksfest, and National Geographic is the only counted round-up carrying it, as a sibling of the Munich original. Estimates in the article put 4.2 million visitors there in 2006.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannstatter_Volksfest - 3
Oktoberfest, USA (La Crosse, Wisconsin)
Three days was the first run, 13 to 15 October 1961, and four days came the year after. It stretched to nine days in 2000 and went back to four in 2014. A Festmaster heads what the article calls the Oktoberfest Royal Family, and there is a Maple Leaf Parade. The article names the festival Oktoberfest, USA while Wikipedia titles the page for La Crosse, and puts the draw at up to 150,000 people a year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest_%E2%80%93_La_Crosse,_Wisconsin - 4
National Beer Festival (Villa General Belgrano)
Argentina's answer to the German original has run every October since 1963, and 2020 is the one exception its article names. It takes two consecutive weekends in a Córdoba village founded in 1930, with the tents at Parque Cervecero, the Brewer Park. National Geographic and Trip.com both list it, and its lead calls it Argentina's version of the German Oktoberfest. The article gives no visitor number.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Beer_Festival - 5
Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest
The twin cities of Kitchener and Waterloo started theirs in 1967, with events from 11 to 14 October, and it now runs from the Friday before Canadian Thanksgiving to the Saturday after. Two numbers sit in its article, counting different things: roughly 700,000 visitors to Waterloo Region a year, and an estimated 150,000 people along the 2016 parade route. The bigger one counts a region rather than admissions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchener-Waterloo_Oktoberfest - 6
Oktoberfest Zinzinnati (Cincinnati)
Dachshunds and dachshund mixes race 75-foot heats in hot dog costumes at the Running of the Wieners. Cincinnati's festival began in 1976, and it also runs a World Brat Eating Championship. It claims a world record for the largest Chicken Dance, set in 1994 with over 48,000 participants. Its article puts the crowd over 800,000 attendees a year as of 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest_Zinzinnati - 7
Oktoberfest of Blumenau
A big flood came before the festival, which the article says was created in 1984. It now runs 18 days in the middle of October at Parque Vila Germânica, the Germanic Village Park, and its own article gives the attendance as about 700,000 a year. Its article records a COVID hiatus: the 2020 dates were pushed to November, then dropped, and the festival came back in October 2022.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest_of_Blumenau - 8
Oktoberfest of Santa Cruz do Sul
The 1993 edition never happened, on financial grounds, and 2020's was deferred to 2021. A first edition in 1984 started it, and recent ones have lasted ten days. Its article counts 464,900 people attending in 2003, alongside 210,000 litres of keg beer. The article prints that number as 464.900, in Brazilian style.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest_of_Santa_Cruz_do_Sul - 9
Qingdao International Beer Festival
August is when this one happens, starting on the second weekend and running 16 days. Tsingtao Beer led the first edition in 1991, staged for the centenary of the town's founding. A 66.6 hectare site went up in 2015 to hold the tents. Its article's own lead calls it a yearly festival and does not use the word Oktoberfest. It appears on Trip.com and GetYourGuide, the second of which says it is often dubbed the Asian Oktoberfest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingdao_International_Beer_Festival
How this list was ranked
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