Reading Time: 4 minutes

Munich, known for the fine architecture, culture and world-famous Oktoberfest is one of the best places to visit in every backpacker’s bucket list. But if you can’t travel all the way to Germany to attend 2019’s greatest beer fest, can always enjoy a local Oktoberfest in a city near you. With 47 days left, event presenters still have the opportunity to replicate the original Oktoberfest in your town. In this blog, we give you a step by step helpful guide to host a local Oktoberfest.

What is Oktoberfest?

Oktoberfest is a beer festival that originated in Munich, Germany in 1810. The wedding celebration of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen turned out to be so successful that they decided to celebrate it every year. The festival brings together beer lovers and foodies to dance, drink, eat and have fun under one roof for 2 exhilarating weeks. Here’s how you go about it.

Define your Budget

Big events can take your expenses overboard or can leave you with a deficiency if your budget isn’t planned well. Since we‘re talking about a local Oktoberfest, create your budget keeping in mind the security, the cost of infrastructure, beer tents, live music and food arrangements. Allocate a specific budget for each activity and track your budget to ensure you have enough in case of an emergency.

Choose your Venue

Your beer festival will attract massive crowds, hence pick an outdoor venue. Once the budget is finalized, book your venue and offer your attendees multiple choices in the seating arrangement. Your attendees can either reserve a table with a certain number of seats or simply go for general admission if they only want an entry into the beer tent. As for the venue, it should preferably be in a remote area, outside the city. That way, you can get a bigger event space, easily arrange for parking facilities. It’ll also allow your attendees to enjoy a long road trip to your event venue, just like at the local Oktoberfest. Geotag your event location on the event ticketing system and share it on social media so your attendees can easily reach the venue.

Set Up Beer Tents

While the actual Oktoberfest has 14 beer tents, you can have as many as you like to ensure your attendees have a great time. Tie up with the local breweries and get the beer flowing in each tent. Just like the actual Oktoberfest, you can name each tent with a cool name and charge the entry for each tent separately. Every tent can have different ticket types, ranging from Regular to VIP tickets to accommodate everyone. To give them the original Oktoberfest feel, give your attendees an option to dress up like they would in Bavaria.

Turn On the Music

A beer fest without music is incomplete. The original Oktoberfest has a mix of live music, DJ and people singing. Organize a live music band or a DJ to get the beer lovers to loosen up and dance to the YMCA or hip hop numbers.

Food Stalls

While Roast Chicken and Schweinebraten(roast pork) and Pretzels are popular german food served at the Oktoberfest, you can customize it according to what the locals would love in your city. You can set up food stalls of different cuisines to give your attendees the best of food along with beer treats. Feast on your favorite beef steak or your popular local food to avoid getting knocked out after a couple of pints. Also, using our YapScan mobile app, you can check real-time sales of the event. Accordingly, you can combine event tickets and food into another ticket type to give your attendees a bundled offer at a discounted price.

Fun Ride

Few pints down yet head not spinning? Offer your attendees an experience of a lifetime with a thrilling roller coaster or something similar to the Toboganfun ride. Your attendees may not experience the actual Alpina- Bahn – the largest traveling roller coaster, but your rides will still leave them with memories they will cherish forever.

Ideal Event Ticketing System

Being a large event, choose a ticketing partner that will take care of all concerns. From promoting your event to selling tickets online, our low priced online ticketing system only has the best to offer. Using our online ticketing system you can easily validate tickets, set up multiple payment gateways and get real-time stats of your Oktoberfest ticket sales. We also support 15 prominent languages so you can host Oktoberfest in any region without language being a barrier. Set up your beer festival in any region with our multi-currency and multiple payment gateway support systems for event presenters across the globe. You can use our ‘Pass On Fees’ feature to make event ticketing free and pay the invoice amount at the end of the month from payment collected from your ticket purchasers

Ticket Customization

Let your ticket design reflect your brand and not be restricted to some ticket provider’s bland format. Use event-related imagery and illustrations to get your attendees excited about your event.

To go with it, create your online ticket store, your way. With Yapsody, you can customize your store design A-Z. Let your online ticket store reflect your brand so you’re looking great for your customers. On top of that, you get your own subdomain, giving your visitors the impression that they’re on a page from your website.

Promoting the Event

Event promotion if done right can result in a sold-out event in no time. With 47 days left, quickly roll out different offers and contests like the early bird offer to attract the beer lovers and foodies to your event. Use our integrated tool MailChimp to send out beer-themed invites directly to your attendee’s mailbox. Spread the word about your event using popular platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. You can also post your events through Yapsody for FREE. Read more about how to effectively promote your event using Facebook and Twitter in our blog.

Make Use of Our Offers

Host your Oktoberfest event with Yapsody and avail our offer. Sign up with Yapsody and get a flat 25% off on your event ticketing fees. Use promo code OKTOBERFEST25 while creating an event on our online ticketing system to save on your fees. Use our “Pass on Fee” feature that we mentioned earlier to add the cost of the ticketing fee to the ticket cost, making event ticketing free for you. That way you get the best of the features for free.

Before the beer season arrives, use our step by step guide to plan and host an Oktoberfest event in your city. Bonus tip: use our blog – “Everything You Need to Know About the 2019 Oktoberfest” as a reference to create your Oktoberfest 2019. Let’s get started, Sign up NOW and avail your offer today.