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.
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 2021?
In order 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 | Expected only for regulars |
Armbrustschützenzelt | Expected March |
Bräurosl | Not expected before June |
Fischer-Vroni | Expected May |
Hacker-Festzelt | Expected May |
Hofbräu-Festzelt | Expected March |
Käfer Wiesn-Schänke | April 1st |
Löwenbräu-Festzelt | Mid-April |
Marstall | January |
Ochsenbraterei | Expected May |
Schottenhamel-Festhalle | ⬤ Via email festhalle@schottenhamel.de; Online portal expected January |
Schützenfestzelt | ⬤ September 1st 2020 |
Weinzelt | Expected January |
Winzerer Fähnd (Paulaner-Festzelt) | Expected April |
Oide Wiesn
The canceled central agricultural fair (Zentrallandwirtschaftsfest, ZLF) will not be postponed to 2021. Therefore, the Oide Wiesn can take place after its regular one-year hiatus. In general, valuable reservation slots are even available to first-timers there.
Festzelt Tradition | April 1st |
Herzkasperl-Festzelt | Expected May |
Zur Schönheitskönigin | Expected May |
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.
Last-Minute-Reservations
Some tents offer last-minute-reservations 24h in advance.
Reservation Exchange
Request and offer vacant seats on reserved tables.
Questions and Answers
We answer the most frequent questions on Oktoberfest reservations.