The Wiesn waitress Julia Beckert shares very interesting stories of the Wiesn madness with us. Read her guest post.
To be honest, I enjoyed the Wiesn madness for the first few years as much as many Australians who save a large part of their salary just to get rid of it at the Oktoberfest. There were times when I went to the world's biggest festival about every other day. Of course I enjoyed it and I have always been happy to be carried away by the Oktoberfest atmosphere. If you asked my parents what music I listened to when I was a kid, they would probably laugh and remember how I kept insisting on brass music being played in the car.
No joke! The Wiesn madness was probably in my blood as a child.
And then I no longer went to the Oktoberfest to celebrate, but to work
How it came about that I suddenly stopped celebrating and went to work at the Oktoberfest, I can honestly no longer say. At some point I must have picked up what a waitress in the beer tent deserves. As a student I could of course use the money well and so it was no longer a question for me whether I would apply as a waitress, but where .
With a lot of luck, I ended up in one of the smaller tents. Because another Oktoberfest waitress fell down the stairs the day before the start, I was promoted from the clerk to waitress and was with the "big ones" from the start. I couldn't have known at the time that that ended up getting me almost three times the salary. Because there is one thing that Wiesn waitresses don't do: talk about money!
Because everything went so spontaneously and unplanned back then, I was extremely poorly prepared. I had to get all my equipment (for example medication, change, wallet) on the same evening on which I was accepted. I got this at 7.30 p.m. and so I had to mobilize all the friends who were present to get the missing items. Half an hour later we actually had everything together and suddenly there was only one thing left: the excitement!
After three years as a waitress at Oktoberfest, I can say that the excitement will probably never go away. Even the "old hands", who have been serving at the Oktoberfest for around twenty years, are really excited every year. Sleep, which would be so important the night before the first day of the Oktoberfest, is definitely neglected. Body and mind are preparing for what awaits you in the next few days: hard work for body and nerves! At some point the alarm clock rings and then all you have to do is have breakfast, put on a dirndl and with your heart pounding in the marquee. (Read Julia Beckert's first guest post here: "This is how I prepare for the hardships")
This moment gives me goose bumps
At some point the time has come and the doors open. What happens next gives me goose bumps every year: within a few minutes the benches fill up and the noise level increases from one minute to the next to what feels like a thousandfold.
Like madmen, people rush towards the beer benches to get one of the coveted seats. Many of them have been waiting in front of the tent since the early hours of the morning to be at the front of the line. A short time later the big, heavy doors close again because the tent is "closed due to overcrowding". Madness!
There isn't even beer there, and people are already raging like crazy and the atmosphere is boiling over and over again. Somebody starts a song and the whole tent starts to roar like an avalanche. In the first few hours there are only non-alcoholic drinks. Because O'zapft is only when the mayor of Munich has tapped the very first wooden barrel with one, two, three, four, or many blows.
At the latest when it says “O'zapft is”, the adrenaline level rises with every experienced waitress and long queues form in front of the bars. Then the time has come: the first waiter, packed with 14 beer mugs, walks to his table. The crowds are freaking out. Roaring, cheering, screaming. All over. Nobody thinks about the weight of the beer mugs anymore. The head works at full speed. Adrenaline rushes through your body and suddenly you are at the first table and have to be careful that the greedy party people don't tear the beer out of your hand. Well then, let the madness begin!
So it goes on. 16 days in a row from morning to night
I have been serving in one of the largest festival tents with my friend for two years. We are a super well-coordinated team and I think without him I would no longer dare to do anything.
While I am supplying the guests with beer, my friend is dragging a huge number of plates through the tent on a huge tray (the so-called "sledge"). Every time I see it so heavily loaded, my heart almost stops. If it all fell down ... you don't even want to calculate the value of the food that is piled up on such a sledge! Fortunately, this has not happened yet and the only thing I can tell about food losses is actually quite funny.
Wiesn stories that you will never forget
When my boyfriend had to squeeze through the aisles with a heavy load, some drunk full **** had the great idea - where else - to hold on to his sled, which he was balancing with one hand. Fortunately, nothing happened and when my boyfriend started walking again, you suddenly heard a man shout “Heee do is a Knedl in my measure!”. Without thinking about it any further, he served the guests the meal and said, "Oh my dear," because a dumpling was missing! On the way back he saw a man who was drinking his beer with a side dish and we both had to laugh heartily.
But you never get bored of hauling beer around! Once I ran down the full aisle with ten measures and had somehow held the jugs badly. Fearing that the beer mugs might fall, I accelerated my pace and shortly before the finish a guest stretched out his leg and blocked half the aisle. Of course, looking down is very limited with so many beer mugs and so I stumbled over his leg with the whole load of beer. "Shit, don't drop anything now! I just can't lose the 110 euro value, ”I thought and tried to get down on my knees somehow and just think about the beer. I couldn't believe it, but not even a measure was lost! The only damage was a grazed knee, but of course you would rather have that than having to pay ten beer mugs out of your own pocket.
There are so many stories I could share with you guys
There are probably countless stories that I could share with you from three years of Oktoberfest experience. The Italian weekends in particular are always something to talk about.
Basically there are good days and not so good days. Sometimes you can't stand the music, sometimes you are full of motivation and could tear up trees after work. The Wiesn madness has its good and bad sides and they all belong to it like beer at Oktoberfest.
A familiar face makes everything more bearable
There are always guests who make your work bearable, with whom you shout along, laugh and celebrate as if we had always been friends. Such guests are always happy to get a table for the next few days. Because one thing is definitely THE recipe for success when it comes to "surviving" at the Oktoberfest: the selection of guests!
If it is somehow possible, we make sure that we occupy at least one table with familiar faces or friends every day. There is nothing that cheers you up more than the smile of a good friend who lets you take a sip of his measure and puts you in a good mood. Little by little, the friends are joined by the first regulars, who are certainly more pleasant than a drunken bunch of Italians. Of course they have to be there just as early as everyone else, because of course you can't keep the benches free. At some point you get the hang of it, and with good guests, working at the Oktoberfest is really great fun!
The head of a Oktoberfest waitress never ends
What drives me down the most is the lack of sleep every year! By the time you get home, it's usually twelve o'clock and then the dirndl has to be washed, showered and a bite to eat. At the latest when I blow-dry my hair, the brass music booms through my head and I imagine the voices that have reached me from all sides all day.
The work never stops! I lie in bed, close my eyes and keep dragging beer through the crowded hallways, I get claustrophobic, the brass music is rustling in the background and someone thinks they have to complain that they had to wait too long for their beer. Two measure on the two, five measure and three shandy on the four and the one on table one orders another Wiesn chicken. It goes on like this all night. Suddenly my friend shakes my arm and tells me to get up. "Wait, I just have to get the beer out," I mutter and turn on the other side. I work through, even when I'm not working, and that is much more strenuous than the work itself. The head cannot calm down and the only thing that can motivate you to get up every day is the look into the always fuller expectant wallet.
Feelings of happiness and a sea of lights
The Oktoberfest ends every year with a speech by the hosts, sparklers and music. Then at the latest I will stand on the table with a cool drink and marvel at the sea of lights. There it is again: the goosebumps! I look back on sixteen exciting days and I'm just proud! It's done again and suddenly it's all over! I think of the funny moments and the difficult hours and a feeling of happiness flows through the whole body. I would never have thought of myself that I was capable of such a thing.
Suddenly all the hype is over, the lights go on and while the last guests are leaving the tent, the first dismantling work begins. Later you meet in the tavern to celebrate and let go of the burden of the last few weeks.
Like every year, the end of the Oktoberfest means the starting shot for our vacation for me and my friend! You need it afterwards, otherwise you won't come down for months and carry the consequences with you for far too long. But after a week of extreme relaxation I could say: "O'zapft is!"
A guest contribution by Julia Beckert from our archive (2016). In 2016 she was Oktoberfest waiter in the Ochsenbraterei for the fourth time.
Also read her first guest post about preparing for the hardships. And her guest post "This is why we Oktoberfest waitresses get so grumpy when it comes to money".
Beckert blogs about her life in Munich, about restaurants and traveling on living4taste.de.
Read more amazing, courageous, and moving guest posts.
Do you know the eight most annoying sentences from guests that the Oktoberfest waitress no longer wants to hear? The experienced waitress Corinna Binzer from the Löwenbräuzelt will tell you.
Oktoberfest quiz in video: Did you know all that?
Receive free Munich messages via WhatsApp
Munich news via WhatsApp for free on your mobile phone: tz.de offers a special service. You will regularly receive the latest news from Munich directly on your smartphone via WhatsApp. And it's free: Register here!