An oompah band is blowing a brassy tune through the streets of Munich's Old Town. It passes our table outside Munich's oldest brewery, Augustiner Brau. The band is quite a spectacle, with everyone dressed in traditional lederhosen shorts and braces, their brass instruments gleaming in the sunshine. I raise my glass in a toast to Munich's amazing Oktoberfest, the world's biggest celebration of beer.
Fuelled on local lager, we summon the courage to tackle another local speciality, the formidable menu at Munich's oldest tavern, Hundskugel, on Hotterstrasse, which includes robust Bavarian dishes such as mildly spiced white veal sausage, plates of enormous chewy dumplings, and hunks of roast suckling pig served with noodles. The tavern has been filling bellies since it opened in 1440.
Adopting a brazen attitude to the pursuit of sheer enjoyment and fulfilment is essential if you hope to survive the famous autumn Oktoberfest. This colourful and noisy brewery love-in is a boisterous two-week affair during which time things tend to become slightly unhinged. This may help explain why an event named for October takes place mostly in September.
First held in October 1810, to honour the marriage of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen, the public festival's runaway success prompted the city elders to make it an annual event - one that was later shifted to its September start, so everyone might enjoy slightly warmer nights while carousing.
Locals simply call this annual Bacchanalian blitz die Wiesn, after the festival grounds at Theresienwiese, a park in the city's west named in honour of the princess. Oktoberfest always draws massive crowds, but with Munich also celebrating its 850th birthday, this year's event promises to be bigger than ever.
Oktoberfest will last 16 days, from Saturday, September 20, to Sunday, October 5, during which time more than 6 million visitors will quaff about 30 per cent of the annual production of Munich's six major breweries and chomp their way through mountains of barbecued beef, chicken, smoked mackerel and sweet pancakes.