You’ve probably heard of Oktoberfest, but you’ve probably never heard of its younger brother, the Stuttgart Beer Festival held in Stuttgart, Germany. While it’s only a younger brother, it’s still the second-largest beer festival in the world.
The Stuttgart Beer Festival is fantastic in its own ways, providing people with a unique experience that they can only get at Stuttgart.
If you love beer and you love festivals, and whether you’ve been to the Oktoberfest at least once in your life, its younger brother, the Stuttgart Beer Festival, is an event that you shouldn’t miss.
Here are some of the most fun facts to know about the Stuttgart Beer Festival before attending it for the first time.
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Well, it’s the World’s Second-Largest Beer Festival.
The CannstatterVolksfest, which is what the locals call the Stuttgart Beer Festival, is the second-largest beer festival in the world. With approximately 4 million people in attendance per year, you can expect the atmosphere to be extraordinarily festive and fantastic. It’s almost impossible not to have a great time when you have three weeks of great beer, delicious food, amusement park rides, and live music with millions of other people.
It’s been Around for more Than 200 Years!
The Stuttgart Beer Festival may not be as big as the Oktoberfest, but it’s also a beer festival that has been in German history for many years. In fact, the Stuttgart Beer Festival has been around for more than 200 years!
The Stuttgart Beer Festival was a festival made to improve the morale of the agriculture sector after a destructive volcanic eruption in Indonesia, an eruption so big that it affected Europe. To boost the morale of the highly-affected agriculture sector, the Stuttgart Beer Festival began in 1818, which is just eight years after the first time Oktoberfest was held.
Wasenhasi, the Stuttgart Beer Festival’s Furry Mascot
The Stuttgart Beer Festival has a mascot, and it’s a rabbit whose name is Wasenhasi. If you want to meet Wasenhasi at the Stuttgart Beer Festival, you can meet him somewhere in the Wasen, which is the park where the Stuttgart Beer Festival is held.
He’s a very adorable mascot who’ll also be kind enough to pose for a picture with you. You may even spot Wasenhasi together with Hasi, his girlfriend.
If you’re curious about his background, Wasenhasi originated from an old Schwabian folk song about rabbits grazing on the ground at the Wasen.
Lederhosens and Dirndls!
The Stuttgart Beer Festival isn’t as strict as the Oktoberfest regarding attire. Wearing a lederhosen or a dirndl isn’t something that’s really required. However, you’re still welcome to wear them, as wearing them certainly makes the experience more fun and authentic, both for you and every other person at the festival.
So, if you have a lederhosen or a dirndl, make sure to bring it to the festival, or if you don’t, make sure to get one before going to the festival.
It’s not Just Beer
While it’s a beer festival, and you can get great-tasting beer, you can get your buzz from more than just beer when you go to the Stuttgart Beer Festival. You can also get wine, schnapps, shots, champagne, and liquor. You can even enjoy the Jagermeister tent if you want to take it far.
Tasty, Hearty Food
The beer is excellent, but it’s not as great when you don’t have tasty and hearty food to wash down with your beer. But while the Stuttgart Beer Festival is a beer festival, you can also enjoy great and authentic German food as you know it: sausages, greasy potatoes, cheesy spätzel, and many more. With so many food stalls, you can have a vast selection of food while enjoying great times drinking beer during the festival.
The Rides
Before enjoying the food that we’ve talked about before, make sure that you don’t miss the rides in the amusement park.
Trust many previous festival attendees who’ve learned their lesson and us; you don’t want your stomach full of meat and beer after a ride on the good old Alpina roller coaster. You don’t want to throw up, but you won’t want to throw up on another person even more.
So, prepare your stomach before enjoying yourself on the numerous rides at the Stuttgart Beer Festival.
You don’t have to Worry About Driving Home!
Have you ever been in a situation where you want to drink more beer and have an even greater time than the time you’re already having, but you’re worried about driving home? Well, driving home isn’t something you need to worry about at the Stuttgart Beer Festival.
What makes the Stuttgart Beer Festival unique is its famous Drive-Me-Home service, which allows someone else to drive you home in your car if you aren’t fit enough to drive. You can go to many festivals and clubs in the world, but this may be the only event that offers such an excellent service.
To lessen drunk driving incidents, the Stuttgart Beer Festival came up with the Drive-Me-Home service, where volunteers will drive you home. Since they’re volunteers, you don’t even have to pay anything other than their cab fare back to the festival so that they can continue their volunteer work.
The Stuttgart Beer Festival has many fun things to offer if you give it a chance. You can get a look at all these fun things with Thirsty Swagman helping you out when you go to the Stuttgart Beer Festival.