Mumbai Oktoberfest: Prost du Sack!

The festival hosted by the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with DHL was a huge success the first time it came to Mumbai back in 2010. This year it went bigger (Duh!). Need we speak any more about the trend of the world’s most popular festival? These fests are hosted in Pune, Mumbai and Delhi.

The first day of the festival witnesses the ritual of the first keg being ‘Tapped’. With that out of the way, the festival gets kick started! (Can’t believe we missed that this time!)

Now, let’s not compare the German Oktoberfest with that of Mumbai’s. They are 200 years (1810 – Bavaria; 2010 – Mumbai) apart for god’s sake! A three day festival is a good start for us, unlike the 16 day counterpart which is well, Legendary! 

 

Apparently about 120 tables (each seating 10) were sold out for all three days! We got in on the last day of the festival and walked out with mixed emotions. The cover charge for walk-ins was INR 3250, which included 2 litres of beer, a beer mug and a meal. 

This year’s beer sponsor (like last year’s) was Erdinger. Oh boy! What a delightfully refreshing beer! 

Although the fest started from 5:00 pm, crowd only started pouring in by 7:00ish. The band was to play 6:00 pm onwards, but started playing only post 6:30 pm.

It was a little confusing, initially, to get used to the layout. But we sniffed out our beer! We walked towards the counter to pick up our beer mugs and first litre of the complimentary beer. OANS ZWOA DREI! G'SUFFA! (One Two Three! Drink!)

Since we were the early birds (reached around 6:15pm), getting our hands on the beer wasn’t very difficult. By this time the band kicked off and soon we were swaying to their tunes. By 7:00ish the crowd started pouring in and within no time the ‘Beer counters’ turned into a standard fish market! 

The band ‘Die Oberbayern’; plays at the Munich Oktoberfest for 14 days! They played several folk songs, and then shifted to more popular tracks like the German version of 99 red balloons, some Bryan Adams songs, etc. 

 

The Band leader instructing the crowd.

 

All this while we thought we were the most sober crowd those chaps have played for, Ever! No hooting, no shouting, no whistling and very few were even dancing! Things changed, however, once the band got the audience to participate in the song 'So a schoner Tag (Fliegerlied)' with certain choreographed movements. We would flap our arms like wings for flying, pretend to swim for swimming, hold our hand over our heads for tall, etc. But soon the crowd went crazier when the sweet ladies in the group started singing Waka Waka tweaked a little for this fest with the lyrics being ‘It’s time for India!’ 

The Lovely Ladies who won our hearts!

The people who fell in love!

One of the other audience related activity was the teasing. The band leader says "Prost ihr säcke!" which means “Cheers, you pricks/morons!” to which the crowd is supposed to reply in unison "Prost du sack!" meaning “Cheers, you prick/moron!”

Every once in a while they would raise a toast to the crowd with:

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit

Der Gemütlichkeit

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit

Der Gemütlichkeit

Which translates into:

A toast, a toast
the comfort
A toast, a toast
The coziness.

So much for the highlights and the good part of the fest, Am not sure if it was the Indian crowd or the management, but we were in line for a refill for a good hour and half! Made us think that Germans are only good at brewing beer, not refilling them! I don’t know why there were no beer-maids who would refill our glasses for us?! That would’ve added to the whole experience of the fest.  

Most people waiting on the refill rather than enjoying the fest!

We overheard a German participant saying this is probably a tactic to prevent the crowd from getting drunk. The high would wear off while they waited for their refills! We kind of agree with him there!

Neither were the walk-ins provided with seating nor were they given complimentary tidbits to munch on. Even on the paid tables, we saw very few tables had the complementary pretzels and tidbits.

As if this mess wasn’t enough, by 10ish the open air dining area was pretty much shut. The makeshift tent collapsed under the weight of the rain water. The lights were shut because of the rains. 

Sure the rain gods spoiled the show, but this could’ve been avoided, considering it’s been raining in the evenings for few days consecutively before the festival. The food wasn’t that great either. But then again, we didn’t go there for food ;)

Post dinner when we went for a paid refill (INR 500/Ltr.) we were shocked to see that the venue ran out of tapped beer! They were now serving beer from pints! Since we loved the beer so much, we quickly got our refills (thank God we didn’t have to wait this time) and headed out of the festival.

Our advice to the organizers:

• You could vary the table sizes and offer for 5, 10 or individual basis. Most people (talking about people we know) weren’t able to form groups that big!
• You know how many tables have been bought. Be prepared for the turn out!
• Some free tidbits per table wouldn’t really harm!
• Get some beer-maids, adds to the effects, plus they’ll decongest the beer counters.

Our friends kept contemplating if this festival was worth the price. We think it sure was! The beer and the band were worth it all! Besides the wait for refill, and them running out of kegs and some minor arrangements here and there, we think this festival is worth the price.

 If you ask us, we'd love to be here again! Hopefully for the tapping ceremony!