A PIECE OF BAVARIA IN AJMAN

Every country in the world tries to emulate the first Oktoberfest celebration held in honour of Princess Therese's marriage to the Bavarian Crown prince Ludwig in the year 1810. The celebrations were such a success that they were held every year after that.

By Blessing Johnson

Published: Wed 6 Oct 2004, 2:44 AM

Last updated: Thu 2 Apr 2015, 12:59 AM

This celebration will be recreated at the Ajman Kempenski on their private half a kilometre beach, where a huge tent — which could hold over 300 people at a time — is being erected to host the celebrations which will span three days — from today to October 8. The tent decorated in the traditional Bavarian colours of blue and white, apart from the other traditional decorations. The main attraction though, is the original five piece band flown all the way from Munich, who will play on traditional instruments and songs to keep everyone entertained and for those who do not have an ear for music, there are a lot of original games like shoe sewing etc with a lot of prizes going to the winners, but the main attraction is the Bavarian food, as Chef Wolfgang notes, "We have many mouth-watering items in chicken, beef fish, veal and even vegetarian. No one is left out."

Though the celebration is on for three days, the festival comes alive only in the evenings — often starting at around 7 and going on till 2 in the night, overflowing with food and frothy. There is a misconception about the festival, it is as much a celebration of food as of drinking.

"Most people, specially non-Germans are not sure whether they can go to this festival or not and those who travel a lot would much rather go to Munich and have the actual experience but this would be a wonderful opportunity for all those who want to know more about it, to have a feel of how the Oktoberfest is in Munich," says the hotels' spokesperson Carolin Beuster, who is a German herself.

Chef Wolfgang is the most enthusiastic about the festival, and waxes eloquent about the red cabbage and the white cabbage cooked in the bubbly drink, "A non-German just has to taste the traditional food to get hooked to it. We have home made noodles, cheese, fried onions, bread dumplings, potato dumplings and frothy by the barrel." he says and adds "It's quite heavy, but that's how it was back then ... the third day is quite special as we have a special meal accompanied with white sausages, which are typically Bavarian."

Oktoberfest sure is the right time to have feel of the many authentic Bavarian delights under a tent and bang on the beach! Move over Bavaria, here comes Ajman.