Inevitably, all local
festivals
stand in the shadow of
the
Oktoberfest ,
but there are plenty of
other annual events.
Fasching
, Munich's Carnival,
begins in earnest
immediately after
Epiphany with a
week-long series of
costume parades.
Fancy-dress balls are
held regularly up to and
including Carnival Week,
whose festivities come
to a climax on Ash
Wednesday with a
ceremony of washing
money bags at the
Fischbrunnen in
Marienplatz. A couple of
weeks later begins
Starkbierzeit
, the period when strong
beer is served in the
taverns to help make the
stringencies of Lent
bearable. More specially
brewed strong beer can
be sampled at the
Maibock-Anstich
in May. Held in the
Olympiapark during June
and July,
Tollwood
is a world music
festival which
additionally features
stalls selling a
similarly international
range of food and
handicrafts.
The Auer Dult
is a traditional market
that takes place on the
Mariahilfplatz during
the last weeks of April,
July and October each
year. It has a
combination of hardware,
crafts and antiques, as
well as a fairground for
the kids. An annual
Christmas market, known
as the Christkindlmarkt
, is held on the
Marienplatz during the
month of December,
though the ones at the Münchener
Freiheit, and around the
Pariser Platz in
Haidhausen, are less
commercialized with more
handmade crafts.
