Bräurosl
The Pschorr brewery's tent has a difficult reset behind and has recently been transformed into a regular party tent.
The Bräurosl is one of the large tents of the Munich Oktoberfest. Existing since 1901, the tent today offers 6490 seats on the inside and 1760 in the beer garden.
History
The Bräurosl tent is named after a legendary daughter of the Pschorr family, who was known to drink her maß beer every evening on horseback in the brewery and hereby deeply impressing the brewers with her appearance. She is also the motif of the picture, high above the entrance.
The Bräurosl was established in 1901, being the first tent to be illuminated electrically. In 1913, it was the largest beer tent ever built for the Oktoberfest, seating up to 12000 guests.
From 1936 to 2019, the tent was run by four generations of the Heide family from Planegg, before Schönheitskönigin host Peter Reichert took over in 2022.
The predecessor to the current building was completely rebuilt in 2004 and renovated again in 2011, primarily with the addition of glass facades and a beer pipeline, both of which had already been tested at the sister tent Winzerer Fähndl (Paulaner Festzelt).
Rebuild in 2022 and Change of Host
The Paulaner Group's tents do not last very long. The last Bräurosl tent only lasted for 15 Oktoberfests before being replaced by a new building in 2022. The tent, which is an impressive 15 meters high, is modeled after the facade of a historic Bräurosl building. As with all new buildings in recent years, the capacity of the Bräurosl has unfortunately been shifted from the central nave to a wraparound balcony. Thanks to wide aisles, the balcony is still one of the best of the Oktoberfest. The decoration in the airspace is deliberately spartan in order to emphasize the barrel vault formed by the lighting.
This works very well in the (early) evening, but unfortunately the tent has an atmospheric problem in daylight when the sun is not shining. Then it appears very cold and unwelcoming, which is reinforced by the light colors and the height of the room. Lighting with adjustable light temperature might have been beneficial here. Later in the evening, the lighting is unfortunately dimmed significantly, which means that the vaulted ceiling is no longer shown to its best advantage. It is easy to see that darker does not automatically mean more atmospheric when all the lights come back on at half past ten.
New landlords were also sought for the new building. The Heide family decided, somewhat surprisingly, to stop after 83 years. Peter Reichert, who previously ran the Schönheitskönigin at Oide Wiesn, took over. He had to contend with all sorts of problems at the outset. A chaotic change in reservations, areas without reservations that were not clearly marked and the evacuation of the latter when reservations changed, as well as the dismissal of dozens of waiters, clouded the new start.
Reichert was also personally at the center of criticism after a surveillance video was leaked to the press showing a physical altercation between the host and a security guard. He also denies allegations that he violated food hygiene laws.
In 2025, the tent will undergo its first minor renovation since it was newly built. Parasols will be installed on the south side of the garden. In addition, the menu will be slightly revised.
Crowd and atmosphere
Formerly known for a very young crowd and non-traditional music, the tent was trying to become a little more traditional in 2022. Therefore, Ludwig-Thoma-Musikanten, who have been the tent's band since 1972, were replaced by the very renowned Blaskapelle Josef Menzl, is known for its wild Bavarian beer hall music. Unfortunately, Hacker-Pschorr didn't give the new band enough time to win over a new, more traditional crowd and started using a party band for the evenings after only five days.
In 2024 Menzl's band will be replaced by Karolinenfelder and the party band Volxxbeat will be used for the evenings on the oversized stage.
Gay Parties
Every now and then, you read that the Bräurosl is “the gay tent.” This misunderstanding is only true on the first Sunday of Oktoberfest, but then all the more. In the 1970s, the Münchner Löwen Club (MLC) began holding its annual Oktoberfest meeting at the Bräurosl balcony. In 1977, they even managed to reserve an entire balcony for the first time. The then host, Willy Heide, liked to recount that he originally thought it was the lions of TSV 1860, not a leather club. However, the high-spending fetish clientele quickly became popular and increasingly attracted non-club members as well. Since around the end of the 1990s, the tent has been regularly closed on the first Sunday due to overcrowding and is firmly in gay hands.
What was once an unofficial celebration has now become a well-organized day with numerous artists, especially drag queens. The MLC sells its spots as an organizer in multi-day packages—exclusively to men—at prices that make some people frown. Due to its great success, “Gay Sunday” now also extends into Monday. On Roslmontag, the community mostly meets in the beer garden and at the back of the tent.
Reservations 2025
Reservations can be requested since April 11, 12 pm on the tent's website. In 2024, the Sundays, as well as the holiday, were available. At the beginning, the last two Sundays, the holiday and the last Saturday were offered.
We advise against the set menus, which are not only impractical, but also cost far more than the sum of the individual items.