Cultural Assimilation at the Frühlingsfest

I keep saying that I will post at least once a week, but I never seem to keep that promise. Oh well, sometimes life doesn't always goes as planned. Any hoo, I've been making myself comfortable in my new home of Bavaria and finding all sorts of hijinks to keep myself entertained.

This past week, I had the great pleasure of attending a maibaum fest as well as the Frühlingsfest on May Day (for those of you in the US, that is Labor Day for everyone else in the world). 

A maibaum is the german translation for maypole, and yes, there is a party dedicated to its raising on the first day of May. I had no idea to expect, yet happily accepted the invitation to hang out with cool Germans and begin my drinking at 11 in the morning. The square at Hans Mielich Platz was transformed into a beer garden, complete with a dance floor, and people in the neighborhood gathered to drink and dance. 

Even though we were in the heart of Munich, it felt like we were in a small village. You could tell the dances the men and women performed were things they have practiced since childhood. 

And the clothes were beautiful. Richly embroidered suspenders, hand tooled leather belts, and skirt covers in mirrored flowers; the outfits made me swoon. 

  

Not to be outshined, I put my best foot forward and modeled my lovely new dirndl. After an exhaustive search, I found this lovely gem at the second hand store across the street from KVR, the immigration office in Munich. And I only spent a total of 50 euros for the entire outfit, which is a much better deal than the 100 euros most places charge for things that are much lower quality. 

The highlight of the day was the performance by the schuhplattler dancers. The schuhplattler is also called slap dancing and can be best described at Bavaria's answer to the step shows that are popular with Black fraternities. 

I am a total geek and squealed when I saw them take the floor. I've been watching YouTube videos of schuhplattlers for months and was so excited to finally see one in person.

After several dances, many compliments on my outfit, and too much beer, my friend and I made our way towards the Frühlingsfest, which is spring's version of Oktoberfest, and takes place at the same location at Theresienwiese. 

Having never been to the actual Oktoberfest and only managed a bastardized version of it in several countries, I was mildly disappointed when we arrived and saw a giant amusement park. Complete with rides and carnival games, I felt like I was at Coney Island. But never one to give up the chance for a new adventure, my friend and I made our way to to the beer tent and continued our love affair with liter glasses. 

Shortly after grabbing a table, we were quickly joined by a two German guys and then two Finnish ones. The Finns were really cool AND sociable, so I took their picture as evidence to present to my Finnish friend who swears her people have no social skills. 

One of our German neighbors, who was only mildly attractive when he was sober, turned into a royal ass once he was intoxicated. He foolishly tried to pull up my dress while I was dancing, and I screamed, "I'll fucking slit your throat if you touch me again you son of a bitch!" My new Finnish friends made it known that they would happily deal with him should he decide to touch me again. 

So all in all, I had a great time, but after seeing what the festival is in the spring, I think I will be avoiding it in the fall. There are far too many beer halls in the city to choose from than to subject yourself to the commercialism and drunken debauchery that is on display at the Oktoberfest. But if I do decide to go, I already have an outfit picked out. 

Adventures in Oktoberfest: International Edition

Photo: Evangelos-Athanassios Mylonas 

Introducing Wild World of World Wide Oktoberfest

As I've stated in previous posts, like this one and this one, I managed to find a job as an International Event Manager and procure a German residence permit right before my Danish residence permit was due to expire. It wasn't exactly the type of position I had hoped for since a large part of me going back to school for my master's degree was to help me transition out of event management. But beggars certainly can't be choosers and this job would help keep me on the continent of Europe, even if I wasn't in the country of Denmark.

So what exactly would I be doing? Well, the short answer is managing Oktoberfest events in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Stockholm, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Amsterdam. I would travel around Europe like a circus carney, filling people up with ok beer and bad food. Needless to say, my mother was not excited about my new job and said, "so you got another degree to become a beer wench?" Thanks mom.

A more in-depth description of my responsibilities would be that I was charged with helping my boss C, develop his organization into a true production company and help him expand his business in the English market. C was a former financier who left the banking world to live out his dream of building an Oktoberfest empire and knew more about money than event production. 

When C contacted me for an interview, small alarm bells went off when I couldn't find any information about his company. But my doubts were assuaged when we met and I found out that the company was basically just him. This was his first attempt at expansion and I would be his first full-time employee. Any other doubts that developed were quickly snuffed out with the belief that getting into a company right at the beginning would be the perfect opportunity for me to put my mark on it. I could see several areas I could improve and looked forward to shaping his company into one that was more efficient and productive. 

First stop, Aarhus

Before C would give me a contract, he had me work a test event in Aarhus. I would be paid for my efforts and if we both agreed that things went well, I would be hired full-time. He paid for the transportation and hotel accommodations and I would pay for my own food when I wasn't on duty. I thought it sounded fair and met him in Vojens, Denmark. There, we would load up the trailer trucks and drive to Aarhus together. Also in for the ride was the company intern, Julie. When discussing the trial run, C mentioned that another person would be working me. But when I asked about my partner, C said that they changed their mind. He added that they were German and Germans didn't like to work. More alarm bells went off. And again I ignored them. Stupid girl.

All in all, the first event was pretty easy. C had hired a group of gentlemen from Poland that did most of the hard labor, including setting up the benches and tables, and building up the bar and kitchen. Professional builders constructed the tent and Julie handled the tickets. I was put in charge of the gift shop and was responsible for the inventory and making sure the girls didn't steal. Poor planning on C's part meant that Aarhus Oktoberfest coincided with a major music festival featuring Alicia Keys. Also, he missed the "Oktober" in Oktoberfest and this event took place in July. Suffice to say we had few customers. He still broke even, but I was surprised since it looked like we never had more than 100 people in a tent with a capacity for almost 2,000. 

The event ran from Thursday to Saturday with breakdown all day Sunday. When the last guests on Saturday left, C thanked me for a job well-done and said I could take it easy the next day. Now, I've learned the ropes of production in MTV and there, everyone is expected to participate in de-rig and breakdown. So staying in my hotel while everyone else is working hard didn't sit well with me and I still showed up Sunday morning to see if I could help. C was genuinely surprised when he saw me and asked what I was doing. I explained that I've always helped during the breakdown of events and wanted to see if I could lend a hand. He laughed at my eagerness and told me to either go shopping or go back to the hotel since the crew had everything under control. He even gave me a few extra kroner for my efforts. 

I spent so little time on site that I was able to use the same ticket for the bus back to my hotel. The next day we packed up and I was put on a train back to Copenhagen. "I guess this won't be too bad," I thought as the train swayed softly, making its way through Denmark. Unfortunately, my thought was premature as the following cities would soon show.