Oktoberfest November

Yes, it is November. Even here the weather is changing. The monsoon rains have passed away, the air is fresh in the mornings and last night I was even cold in bed! There are no falling leaves though and while the days are glorious and beautiful I do find myself longing for a crisp nip in the air and what I can only call sweater weather.

I am creating my own personal sweater mood though- I have finally started the Philosopher's Wool sweater! This is a kit that I purchased at Stitches West in February of 2006, right about the same time I started this blog. I figure that I am going to need a nice warm sweater for our visit back home in December. I am long overdue for a knitting update, but that is not going to be today ;)

Today I am going to tell you about Oktoberfest!

On Saturday, November 1st the Indo German Cultural Society hosted an Oktoberfest party here in Bangalore. wow. Never in my life have I experienced anything quite like this (and that is saying something!)


Imagine, if you will, a typical Bangalore 5 star hotel, cars pulling up in a queue, moustachiod Indian doorman greeting you as you enter... And then the lobby is packed. Lederhosen, dirndls and all. We proceed upstairs to the main halls, one for food and one for everything else. There were hundreds of people and as we relaxed and settled into our tables, it was apparent that we were united. Drunk Germans, crazy Finns, wild Indians and all the rest were here for one reason only, to have a party. The band, flown in for the occasion from Germany, started the evening with a long set of German beer drinking songs, interspersed with toasting songs, followed by drinking. Yes, there was lots of drinking.

Oktoberfest Band

No, there was no good German beer, we were stuck with Kingfisher for the night, but in such good company even it was palatable. There were sights I will never forget, like the young Indian guy dancing on the table with the Lederhosen clad band member, the unidentified crazy Finn dancing with shoes in his pockets and the long line of dancers, surely representing every country in the world, snaking through the hall.


As the night progressed the dancing moved up onto the benches, some number of which broke, and up onto the tables

Broken bench #2 and counting...

But it was an experience I am very grateful to have had. We all felt welcomed into a German cultural experience and I for one won't miss it next year.


At 11:30 it was time to finish. We truly could have gone on for many, many more hours, but Bangalore law being what it is, this was our cut off time. We all knew we had already bent Bangalore tolerance (and broken the law) by combining live music, alcohol, and dancing at the same event. The band was shooed away from the stage, a very brave Indian hotel representative announced to us all that "Our friends the police are already here" and so we slowly accepted our fate and dispersed into the night.

Crazy fun.