German Beer Festivals
The largest beer festival in the world is Oktoberfest in Germany. Several other smaller beer festivals are held all over Germany throughout the year. The 2nd largest beer festival in Germany and probably in Europe, is the Cannstatter Volksfest, hosted on the Cannstatter Wasen in the Bad Canstatt district of Stuttgart. It starts one week later and is very similar in character to Oktoberfest. Its popularity increases and more and more people come from around the world to visit the festival every year.
Many places have beer festivals styled as "Oktoberfests", but taken on its own the name is generally taken to mean for the Munich event. Smaller beer festivals similar to the Oktoberfest are common in Germany and take place throughout the year in most bigger German cities. Some of them go on later into the night than the Oktoberfest.
The second largest genuine Bavarian festival is the Gäubodenvolksfest in Straubing. The festival is similar to Oktoberfest but it has an own history and it is not a copy of the Oktoberfest, as is the Barthelmarkt by Manching, which even dates back to Roman times. The third largest beer festival in Bavaria is the Bergkirchweih in Erlangen, with the largest open-air beer garden in Europe.
Other beer festivals include the Hanover Schützenfest, the Freimarkt in Bremen, the Hamburger Dom, and the Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest. Like the Oktoberfest and the Cannstatter Volksfest, most German beer festivals are also funfairs. They are called "Volksfest" (festival for the people).
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