Oktoberfest!

I decided to make a detour during my walk after work Friday night to the light rail station and check out Oktoberfest on upper Larimer Street.  Oktoberfest here in Denver runs Friday through Sunday both this weekend and next, but since the weather was predicted to be cold and rainy both Saturday and Sunday, I decided Friday night was the best time to go. Not surprisingly, the streets were filled with young hipsters, who seem to celebrate any special holiday whatsoever.  I was especially surprised that so many hipsters took the Colorado Rockies' Opening Day off this past April to celebrate in the ballpark neighborhood, but as far as I could tell, nobody was watching the game, just hanging out on patios and rooftop bars, and drinking beer.

And in fact, that is what they were all doing last Friday night, too.  There were booths set up where people could buy huge glass steins of beer (at a huge price, too, I might add), and people either hung out in the street and drank, or else sat down in two huge tents to imbibe, one of which is seen in the photo on the right.  What I want to know is why the festival is called Oktoberfest if it doesn't even take place in October?  I checked and found out that even in Munich, the event this year starts on Saturday, September 16th and ends on Tuesday, October 3rd.  I understand the need to have these festivals when the weather is still nice, but why not just call it Septemberfest instead? The internet (which is always accurate, by the way) states that the first Oktoberfest (which celebrated the wedding of Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria) was in October, but to take advantage of better weather conditions, the starting date of later festivals was moved back to September, and the October part lopped off.  I still say it should be Septemberfest, even if you can't put a "k" in it.