These 4 paths will lead you to your Oktoberfest reservation.
Only a couple of decades ago, people wouldn’t even consider getting reservations for Oktoberfest tents. As the importance of the Oktoberfest tents has grown significantly starting in the 80s, reservations have become one of the most discussed topics. On the one hand, they release you from the sometimes cumbersome search for free seats, on the other hand, they guarantee admission to your tent on a Friday night or Saturday, when tents may close to avoid overcrowding. And all that in general for free - only some vouchers for beer and food have to be bought beforehand. By the way, apart from reservations, you don't need to buy vouchers at all - you just pay cash in the tent for what you consume.
So, let’s better reserve for a Saturday? If it only was that easy… Actually valuable reservations – for evenings and weekends are usually not publicly available as they are exclusively offered to returning guests. On weekends, even lunchtime reservations are often not available to new customers.
Foreigners like to overestimate the importance of reservations. Therefore, we want to make it absolutely clear that you don’t need reservations to visit the Oktoberfest and its tents. Also, there are no tickets.
How can I reserve for Oktoberfest tents?
To acquire a valuable evening or weekend reservation, those are in our opinion the best options you have:
1. Reservation Alarm
When valuable reservation slots become available, you need to be fast. Therefore, subscribe to our free reservation alarm to learn about them as quickly as possible.
2. List of available Reservations
We offer the only overview over available and valuable Oktoberfest reservations.
3. Last-Minute-Reservations
A small portion of seats is being reserved only 24 hours in advance.
4. Reservation Exchange
In the largest Oktoberfest group on Facebook, lots of spare seats are given away on short notice every year.
When can I reserve for the Oktoberfest 2023?
Not to miss any start of reservations, we list all dates when tent hosts start to accept reservation requests in the following table as soon as they are published. Most tents only accept requests for weekday daytime shifts. You'll find the links to the individual reservation forms on each tent page. You have to know that there is no central reservation platform. Alle tents' hosts do their reservations themselves.
Large tents
Augustiner-Festhalle | Tba. Only left-overs expected to be distributed in September |
Armbrustschützenzelt | ⬤ March 14 |
Bräurosl | Unknown |
Fischer-Vroni | Exp. March |
Hacker-Festzelt | Exp. May |
Hofbräu-Festzelt | ⬤ March 14 |
Käfer Wiesn-Schänke | Exp. April 1st |
Löwenbräu-Festzelt | April |
Marstall | Exp. April |
Ochsenbraterei | Early Summer |
Schottenhamel-Festhalle | ⬤ December |
Schützenfestzelt | ⬤ February 1st, 10 am |
Weinzelt | ⬤ February 15 |
Winzerer Fähnd (Paulaner-Festzelt) | Unknown |
Oide Wiesn
For Oide Wiesn tents, valuable reservation slots are even available to first-timers.
Festzelt Tradition | April 1st |
Herzkasperl-Festzelt | ⬤ March 3rd |
Schützenlisl | ⬤ February 11th |
General Reservations Regulations
- Reservations are not required. Admission to all tents is free.
- Except for the Festzelt Tradition, you're required to guarantee a minimum consumption with your reservation by buying beer and chicken vouchers in advance. Usually, you need to buy two beers and one half chicken per seat.
- Those vouchers can still be used after Oktoberfest in the hosts' restaurants.
- A quarter of all seats in the large tents are generally unreserved, on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays before 3 pm, it's even half, after 3 pm, 35% of all seats. Only Käfer and the Weinzelt are excepted from this rule.
- On weekends before 3 pm, 15% of the seats inside may be additionally reserved for people living in Munich. Not all tents do this, though.
- 10% of the actually unreserved sections may be reserved 24 hours in advance as last-minute-reservations.
- Reserved and unreserved sections in the tents are to be indicated by signs.
- The tables in the beer gardens can't be reserved.
- With only a few exceptions, you can only reserve whole tables for typically ten persons.
- Reselling reservations is prohibited.
How can I pay for my reservation?
Paying for the vouchers you have to buy with a reservation is done via bank transfer, which is the predominant way to settle a bill in Germany. Your bank will usually be able to do the transfer using the IBAN of the recipient for you.
However, banks are known for charging outrageous fees for international wire transfers. Therefore, it's advisable to check whether an alternative service is a more affordable option. We made good experiences with Wise in the past. If you decide to use Wise using this link, we'll get a commission.
Last-Minute-Reservations
Some tents offer last-minute-reservations 24h in advance.
Reservation Exchange
Request and offer vacant seats on reserved tables.
Oktoberfest Reservations 2023: what are the odds to get one?
Although evening reservations are almost unavailable to non-regulars, there are some exceptions.
Questions and Answers
We answer the most frequent questions on Oktoberfest reservations.