Every year at the end of September, Oktoberfest begins on St. Theresa’s Meadow in the center of Munich. The world’s largest beer festival is attended by six million people. In its two-hundred-year history, the festival has only been canceled during wars and epidemics.
The history of the festival began in 1810 when King Ludwig I of Bavaria married Princess Therese. In honor of the wedding, a grand festival was organized, which lasted for five whole days. This celebration included horse races, concerts, and other entertainment. All this took place on a meadow named Theresienwiese – Teresa’s meadow – in honor of the bride.
The townspeople liked the holiday so much that the heir to the throne ordered it to be held every year in the same place. But the dates have changed a bit over time: for over 200 years, the festival has been held from mid-September to the first Sunday in October and lasts 16 days.
Each time, new traditions were added to those of previous years: a harvest exhibition, thoroughbred horse and bull shows, equestrian and shooting competitions, amusement rides, and fireworks. Since 1896 pavilions have been set up on the meadow, each of which represented an old Munich brewery.
Traditionally, only six old Bavarian breweries are allowed to participate in Oktoberfest: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, and Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu.
In recent years, 14 tents have been set up at Oktoberfest, each accommodating several thousand celebrants. The central tent of the festival seats 11 thousand. Plus 21 smaller tents with 1,000 seats. Tent sites must be booked in advance via the Internet.
Today, Oktoberfest is not only a celebration of beer but also a cultural event where you can enjoy national Bavarian dishes, hear live music, and look at traditional outfits. And, of course, at the festival, you can try different types of beer, which are produced especially for Oktoberfest, as well as buy souvenirs and gifts.
What is Oktoberfest?
Oktoberfest is the name of an annual German folk festival held in Munich, where thousands of tourists from all over the world come every September – October to drink beer and just have fun. Oktoberfest dates back to 1810. Today, only six historic Munich breweries are authorized to brew and supply Oktoberfest beer to the festival.
In terms of visual identity, Oktoberfest is quite unique, as its first-ever logo the festival with more than a 200-year history only received in 2022. However, the badge has already won several professional awards.
The logo of the famous festival Oktoberfest is composed of two parts: a graphical emblem in gradient gold shades and a salaried two-leveled lettering, written in black, with different fonts. The emblem features a designer letter “O” made of a curved ribbon with one of the ends thin and elongated, crowing the character to the left. As for the lettering, the upper line of the inscription, with the name of the event is set in a gothic-styled typeface; while the “Munich” tagline uses geometric sans-serif.
The bold title case lettering from the primary logo of Oktoberfest is set in a stylized torch typeface, which looks somewhat close to such commercial fonts as Weissreg Rundgotisch EF, Garmisch Rund, or Fine Gothic, but with a redrawn letter “O” and some other characters slightly modified.
As for the color palette of the Oktoberfest visual identity, it is based on the combination of gold and black, which reflects the history and heritage of the festival, and looks super confident and sleek on a white background.