\nDeceptive Clich\u00c3\u00a9s: Oktoberfest \u00a0and Bavaria’s Recipe for \u00a0Success<\/a><\/h3>\n
Non-Bavarians and other foreigners tend to believe that the raucous festival amounts to nothing more than a collective drinking binge, a massive party with rollercoaster rides and erotic displays of tight dirndls and deerskin trousers set to the oompah-pah of brass bands. But there is something more refined going on beneath all the noise and clinking of beer mugs. \u00a0 Oktoberfest is actually a 35-hectare (86-acre) stage where performances of great importance play out simultaneously.<\/p>\n
They are about the odd, prosperous southern German state of Bavaria, which at its heart has remained a small, proud nation. They are about the state party, the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), which, in the frenzy of costumes and successful election campaigns, portrays itself as the legitimate successor to the abdicated monarchy. They are about a society’s touching devotion to tradition and local celebrities. And they are about a city where six global corporations listed on Germany’s blue chip stock exchange, the DAX, compete for power and influence — and thus as many seats as possible in Oktoberfest beer tents…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ah yes… \u00a0 the odd prosperous southern German state of Bavaria. \u00a0 It is not the Bavaria you see in Epcot Germany. \u00a0 Something I learned: You can take the boy out of Bavaria, but not Bavaria out of the boy. \u00a0 He might flee to Disney’s Bavaria, which as you would expect is a happier, small world after all kinda place. \u00a0 But that is the Disney version, in a place where dreams come true, and all the ever afters are happy, and the Bavaria in the boy will always remind him that it isn’t real, dreams are merely dreams, life is short and bitter, but at least there is beer.<\/p>\n
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