Oktoberfest 2026 in Munich: rides, shows, dialect words and local knowledge

What is a Noagerl?

A Noagerl (Bavarian, also spelled Noagal) is the last flat, stale rest of beer in the Mass, and a Noagerlzuzler is someone who drinks up other people's Noagerl.

The Bavarian Wikipedia defines it as the last, stale rest in the beer mug and explains the sour tone: the dregs of beer and wine barrels are mostly cloudy. A dpa guide (16 September 2022) says the unappetising rest in the Mass divides the world into three kinds of drinkers: those who leave it, those who drink it, and those who pour it into the next beer.

More words you will hear:

• Die Maß: feminine, one litre, the mug and the measure.
• O'zapft is: the Lord Mayor's traditional call when the first beer runs from the 200 litre barrel, at 12:00 on Saturday 19 September 2026.
• Anbandeln: Bavarian for flirting, which the dpa says belongs to the Wiesn like Brezn, beer and brass music.
• Hirschen: Augustiner's hand-made oak barrels of about 200 litres; Keferloher: the stoneware mug in which the Festzelt Tradition on the Oide Wiesn serves it.

The rest of the words you will hear on the grounds, each with a plain explanation and none of them invented; where a word is Bavarian dialect rather than standard German, the spelling is the one the source uses.

Is the Teufelsrad worth it?

Yes, and watching counts: Feldl's Teufelsrad, at the Oktoberfest since 1908 by the organiser's count (the city says around 1910), is a large disc that spins ever faster; at the presenter's call a group storms it, whoever stays on longest wins, and the crowd laughs at the presenters' Bavarian insults.

The calls are things like "All children aged between 8 and 14" or "All girls aged 18 and over in dirndls"; the best seats are in the middle. Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt rode it. Rudolf Feldl took it over at the end of the 1940s; after his death in 1970 his wife Betty ran it until her death in 2002, and she is the face on the 2026 collector's mug. The presenters, Wiggerl Kugler and his colleagues, perfect the Schadenfreude in a charming Bavarian way, the organiser says.

Where: in the Schaustellerstraße, as usual, per the Munich press (22 July 2026); no official page prints the street, so use the organiser's site plan. Spectators pay a low admission, the organiser says; tip (blog, wiesnkini.de): 5 EUR for adults and 1 EUR for children.

Which rides and shows do locals go to?

Feldl's Teufelsrad and the Schichtl, both on the Schaustellerstraße, are the two a Munich local names first: at the Teufelsrad you sit on a spinning wooden disc while the caller ribs the riders in Bavarian, and at the Schichtl, on the Wiesn since 1869 and on the Bavarian register of intangible cultural heritage since 2026, a volunteer from the audience loses his head to a stage guillotine about twenty times a day.

At the Teufelsrad you pay once at the door and may stay as long as you like, in the stands or on the disc. The Rekommandeur, the caller with the microphone, summons the groups in themed order: couples, women, men, children, and the innkeepers. Documented calls include "Paare, Weibchen oder andere Randgruppen" (couples, little women, or other fringe groups) and, on the festival's own English page, "All children aged between 8 and 14 are riding!" and "All girls aged 18 and over in dirndls!" Men are addressed as Damische (daft ones) or Deppen (idiots), a robust humour that is not meant as an insult. The disc turns faster and faster until centrifugal force slides the riders off; whoever holds on too long is knocked off with a ball and, if that fails, pulled down with a rope. The caller's line about the ball, quoted by a Munich city site: "Ihr braucht keine Angst vor dem Ball zu haben, da sind nur Schaumgummiflocken drin" (you need not fear the ball, there are only foam flakes inside it).

The commentary is child friendly in the afternoon and coarser as the evening goes on. A Munich blog names the callers as Franz Fesenmayer, Horst Hermann and Ludwig Kugler, and gives the riders' own tricks: sit near the centre of the disc where the force is weakest, wear rubber soles or go barefoot with dry feet, leave the elaborate costume at home, and lie flat when the ball or the rope comes. Nobody has to go down: you may watch from the stands all day.

The Schichtl, also on the Schaustellerstraße, is a variety theatre and the oldest showman business on the Wiesn, on the grounds since 1869 and entered in the Bavarian register of intangible cultural heritage in 2026. Its signature act is the "Enthauptung einer lebenden Person mittels Guillotine", the beheading of a living person by guillotine, an illusion built out of stage mechanics, around which clowns, music and dance numbers are arranged in a show of about half an hour. Manfred Schauer has run it since 1985; a volunteer loses his head about twenty times a day, more than 300 times in a festival. Every show begins with a parade on the stage at the entrance, where the Prinzipal delivers a humorous address to the passers by. The founder's barker line is still quoted in Munich: "Oiso geht's nei und schaugts naus oder moants vielleicht, i stai mi da her und mach eich an Hanswurtschn?" (so come in and look out, or do you think I stand here playing the fool for you?), and "Auf geht's beim Schichtl" has become Munich shorthand for "here we go".

The other rides a local names, with what makes each of them itself:

• Krinoline: a carousel built in 1924 and on the Wiesn since 1925, named after the crinoline petticoat, with 16 sofa gondolas under a striped tent roof that sway and lift gently. It was cranked by hand until it was motorised in 1937, and it is the only ride on the Wiesn with its own brass band playing on board, which it has had since 1939. The fourth generation of the Niederländer family runs it, daily from 14:00 to 23:30.
• Toboggan: a 20 m wooden slide tower of 1920, on the Wiesn since 1933 and run by the Konrad family. A fast conveyor belt carries you up with nothing to hold on to, which is the real show, and watching costs nothing. The festival's own site says watching is at least as much fun as riding, above all in the late afternoon, and wiesnkini writes "Kein Wiesnbetrieb verursacht regelmäßig eine derart große Menschentraube" (no business on the Wiesn regularly draws such a big crowd).
• Olympia Looping: on the Wiesn since 1989 and the largest transportable roller coaster in the world, 1,250 m of track with five loops in the colours of the Olympic rings, up to 100 km/h and 5.2 g. Children from 8, and under 12 only with an adult.
• Flohzirkus: the last flea circus on the Wiesn, there since 1949 and run by Robert Birk, in which trained fleas pull tiny carriages, kick a football and race, moving up to 20,000 times their own body weight. In 2005 the whole troupe died two days before the opening and replacements were found through a newspaper appeal.
• Hexenschaukel: the oldest ride on the Wiesn, first set up in 1894 and an illusion: the bench you sit on barely moves while the painted room turns around you, so it feels as if you are looping the loop. There are two in 2026, one on the Schaustellerstraße and one on the Oide Wiesn.
• Wilde Maus: a steel wild mouse coaster in place since 1994, built by Mack and run by Renate and Peter Münch, successor of the wooden Teufelskutsche of 1934. Its cars are sent through tight unbanked hairpins so that they look as if they will shoot over the edge, and generations of Munich children had their first coaster here.

Weekday lunchtimes have their own name and their own habit: the Mittagswiesn, an unofficial tradition since 1998, when most showmen reduce their charges from 10:00 to 15:00, Monday to Friday, but not at the weekend and not on 3 October 2026. The Munich Wiesn blog wiesnkini, read on 14 September 2026, puts it as "Zwischen zehn und 15 Uhr bietet der Großteil der Schausteller seither Vergünstigungen an". The Munich city guide ganz-muenchen.de adds on 14 September 2026 that "Die genauen Zeitfenster unterscheiden sich allerdings von Zelt zu Zelt" (the exact time windows differ from tent to tent), and calls the two family Tuesdays, where the Mittagswiesn and the family day overlap, the cheapest time of the whole festival. Not every lunch dish is automatically a bargain.

What is the Italian weekend?

The Italian weekend (Italiener-Wochenende) is what the Munich police and the Munich press call the second, middle weekend of the festival, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September 2026, when many guests from Italy traditionally arrive.

The name is not on the organiser's pages, but the Munich police used it in a release of 26 September 2025: on that weekend and on the last one, officers of the Polizia di Stato and the Carabinieri patrol together with the Bavarian police, and three officers from Bolzano work in the integrated control room.

Numbers from the Abendzeitung (28 September 2025): 67 percent of the 2024 visitors came from Munich and its surroundings, 10 percent from the rest of Bavaria and 19 percent from abroad, with Italy second among the foreign countries after the USA; t-online (28 September 2024) says thousands drive over the Brenner for it.

The organiser's barometer rates the middle weekend the busiest of the three: Saturday 26 September 2026 is busy in the morning and very busy from 15:00. Arrive early, or come on the weekdays around it.

What is the Oide Wiesn, and what is the Kleine Wiesn?

The Oide Wiesn is the fenced historic fair at the southern end of the Theresienwiese, 4 EUR admission from age 15 in 2026, with three beer tents, the Museumszelt and rides from 1919 at 1.50 EUR a go; the "Kleine Wiesn" is a nickname, most often for the Frühlingsfest in April and May, not a part of the Oktoberfest.

Oide Wiesn hours (organiser, 2026): from 12:00 on Saturday 19 September 2026, then 10:00 to 23:30 Monday to Thursday, to midnight on Friday and Saturday, to 23:30 on Sundays and on 3 October 2026; no charge up to age 14 and after 21:00 through the exits; tickets at the gate or from München Ticket. Inside: the Kettenflieger Kalb of 1919, the Fahrt ins Paradies of 1939, Augustiner from the wooden barrel in the Festzelt Tradition, barrel organ players, face painting and a clown for children.

"Kleine Wiesn": the organiser and the city never use it for the Oktoberfest, whose 21 smaller tents are simply the small tents. Munich media call the Frühlingsfest on the same meadow (17 April to 10 May 2026) the "kleine Wiesn" and the "little sister of the Wiesn". In September, ask which is meant.

When are the family days?

The two family days of 2026 are Tuesday 22 September 2026 and Tuesday 29 September 2026, from opening at 10:00 until 19:00, when numerous rides, showmen and snack bars have special prices for children and families.

The organiser's wording is "special prices for children and families" until 19:00; the city FAQ says "reduced prices" on Tuesdays until 19:00. How much lower, and at which rides, is not published on the official pages; rides are paid one by one at each ride's cash desk.

The same days pair well with the Familienplatzl on Straße 3 Ost (stroller garage, changing table, children's toilet, microwave, no steps) and with the Museumszelt programme on the Oide Wiesn, which children up to 14 enter at no charge. Strollers are allowed until 18:00 on weekdays and never on Saturdays or on 3 October 2026.

The family day is not goodwill alone, it is a condition of the licence. Section 32 of the City of Munich's operating rules for Oktoberfest 2026 says "An den beiden Familientagen (jeweils dienstags) sind bis 19 Uhr die Preise spürbar familienfreundlich zu gestalten" (on both family days, each a Tuesday, prices are to be made noticeably family friendly until 19:00), and it defines who counts as a child: a reduction must apply at least to children up to their eleventh birthday or up to a height of 1.40 m. The same section makes every business post its figures clearly and legibly, which is why the answer to "how much cheaper" is always the board at the cash desk: each showman decides that for himself and the city publishes no list.

How do I get into a tent without a reservation?

Come on a weekday between 10:00 and 15:00, when the organiser's barometer rates every day quiet and a quarter of all tent seats cannot be reserved; on Saturday, Sunday and 3 October 2026 the organiser's reservations page keeps 40 percent of the seats unreserved until 15:00 and its FAQ says half, then a quarter either way, and the organiser says it is easier during the week, at lunchtime and at the Oide Wiesn.

Wednesday 23 September 2026 from 10:00 to 15:00 is the Mittagswiesn, the easiest walk-in slot. The middle weekend (26 and 27 September 2026) is the fullest: arrive before 15:00 or pick a weekday, and expect the main tent entrances to be closed during the reservation change around 16:00 to 18:00; the opening Saturday, the first Friday evening and 3 October 2026 are the other full days.

A full tent closes its doors for a while, and the organiser says queueing is not worth it; the city says there are generally enough places in the tents without a reservation. From the official pages:

• Beer gardens cannot be reserved at all.
• The Hofbräu-Festzelt has the only standing area in front of a stage, about 1,000 places.
• The three Saturdays, 19 September 2026, 26 September 2026 and 3 October 2026, are very busy from 15:00.
• Tip (press, dpa, 16 September 2022): chances are best at midday. Tip (blog, wiesnguide.com): when the main doors are shut, the side entrances to the beer gardens often stay open; move to another tent, or to one of the 21 small tents, which fill more slowly.

Four tents take cash only: Augustiner-Festhalle, Bräurosl, Löwenbräu-Festzelt and Ochsenbraterei. On opening day the tents open at 09:00, but beer flows only after the tapping at 12:00.

Is a table reservation worth it?

For an evening or a weekend, yes; for a weekday lunchtime, no, because entry to the grounds and the tents costs nothing and a quarter of every tent's seats stays unreserved.

Per the organiser, the reservation itself costs nothing and is made only with the tent, never with the festival: you buy a minimum consumption instead, usually two Mass of beer and half a roast chicken (Hendl) in the main aisles of the tent, and in the boxes and galleries an 18 EUR consumption voucher is added. The vouchers stay valid for the whole festival, and the tent must let you redeem or refund unused ones at least until 31 December of the festival year, 2026.

Most tents open their bookings by April or May, on their own websites. Tables can be reserved inside only; the beer gardens are walk-in. The city recommends reserving for evenings and weekends, and the Käfer Wiesn-Schänke admits only reserved guests in the evening. The organiser's reservation page links every tent's booking page.

Where are the toilets?

All 17 large tents have accessible toilets, every toilet on the grounds costs nothing to use, and six accessible public toilets stand around the grounds, the nearest to the main entrance by the Marstall tent.

The six accessible public toilets (organiser, 2026): at the Servicezentrum entrance, by the Marstall tent at the main entrance, behind the Bräurosl, at the Esperantoplatz entrance, in Straße C opposite exit OW 2 and behind the puppet theatre on the Oide Wiesn, plus a "toilet for all" at the corner of Straße D and Straße 6 by the disabled parking; all can be opened with the EURO key. Most small tents have an accessible toilet too.

For children: the Familienplatzl on Straße 3 Ost has a children's toilet and a changing table, and changing and nursing rooms are also in the Servicezentrum at the western end of Matthias-Pschorr-Straße, the building that also holds the police, the medical service and the Safe Space for girls and women.

What can I do during the day?

Weekdays from 10:00 to 15:00 are the quiet hours, so use them for the tents, then walk the grounds: the Bavaria statue is open until 20:00 during the festival, the Oide Wiesn has its barrel organ players from 10:00 to 18:00, and the Ferris wheel (up to 50 m, 40 gondolas, at the Oktoberfest since 1979) shows you the whole meadow.

A day plan from the official pages, all dates 2026:

• Tent brass starts at 11:00 on weekdays and at 10:00 on weekends, not on opening day.
• Sunday 27 September 2026, 11:00: the Wiesn-Platzkonzert, all the tent bands together under the Bavaria.
• Tuesdays 22 and 29 September 2026 until 19:00: the family days.
• Next door: the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum, Am Bavariapark 5 (daily 09:00 to 17:00); in the old town, the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, Sterneckerstraße 2 (Monday to Saturday 11:00 to 19:00).

The four walks with audio stories in the Roots Earth app, Munich section, during the festival, start at the Hauptbahnhof, the Max II monument, the Hofbräuhaus and the Löwenbräukeller and link the meadow to the places of the city; they are listed under the tents and experiences question above.

About Roots Earth

Roots Earth needs no account: open Munich in the app, pick a place and play; download Munich's audio, then it plays without a connection.

The stories are written by local people, and every one of Munich's 98 places has its audio story in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

During the festival the program, the tents and experiences and the 25 places are in the Roots Earth app, Munich section, under Events and Activities for Germany; after Sunday 4 October 2026 that section switches off by design and the Munich audio stories stay.

Roots Earth: Audio stories for 5,665 places in 133 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions. Every place in all 133 cities has its audio story, a short introduction and a longer story, in all seven languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Albanian. The counts come from the Roots Earth catalogue snapshot read on 31 October 2026 (2026-10-31T08:21:20.121Z). Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

Roots Earth is available on the App Store. Roots Earth is available on Google Play. More about Roots Earth, made by ROOTS SHPK, at rootsearth.com.