The beer festival that started with a horse race

Here's the bit that surprised me most about Oktoberfest. It didn't start out about beer at all. In October 1810, Munich held five days of public celebrations for the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese, and the whole thing wrapped up with a horse race on a meadow just outside the city.

Everyone had such a good time that they came back the following year to do it all again, and that meadow is still called Theresienwiese today, named after the bride. There wasn't a single beer tent at that first celebration. No fairground rides either. Just a wedding, days of festivities, and a horse race that people liked enough to turn into a tradition. The beer came later and, somewhat embarrassingly for the horses, took over completely.

I painted the two beer steins in watercolour and ink. There's a poster with a letter home and a postcard if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: Beer Stein and Pretzel, Munich · Travel Poster