Oktoberfest in Sa Riera

Pitched in a large tent on the outskirts of Mallorca’s capital city of Palma, Grup Trui hosted this years Mallorcan take on the German beer festival, the Oktoberfest. Frothy litres of beer and currywurst were served by waiters and waitresses in traditional German dress and a band played classic tunes to entertain the crowds.

The ten day long event poured it’s first beer on the 4th October. Due to popular demand, this Oktoberfest moved from it’s original location on Palma’s seafront to Sa Rierato in order to double the number of people able to sample the German delights. The Sa Riera park isn’t the most convenient location for many people to get to but local bus company EMT are operating extra buses from Placa Espanya and it didn’t look like the change of location put anyone off coming.

Friday the 12th October is a National holiday in Spain so people were filling into the Oktoberfest tent on Thursday evening to kick off the long weekend. We arrived around 9pm which was an ideal time - enough people had arrived before us to build an atmosphere but it was evident that you'd find a space on one of the benches, plop yourself down and try to catch the eye of one of the many waiting staff. Unfortunately not all the waiting staff were in traditional German dress but all were sporting a Paulaner t-shirt so were fairly easy to spot. Although we were waiting quite a while to order our first drink, once our order had been taken the drinks were with us before you knew it. Costing €8 for a litre of Paulaner and €4 for a half, the prices at first sounded a bit steep, but when compared to a litre of normal beer it averages out about the same. The menu also offered wheat beer, beer with a hint of lemon or there was also wines, cocktails, cava and soft drinks, but the staff were keen to see everyone drink their famous beer.

Looking around the tent we could see hundreds of friends and families laughing and drinking out of the novelty litre tankards. Weighing a few kilos in themselves, the glasses that the beer were served in certainly worked on your biceps and helped build up an appetite to sample the German food on offer. The food menu was fairly extensive and was written in both Spanish and German, but I’m afraid there was no English. We just had to pick something and hope for the best. The Palma Oktoberfest served up dishes such as currywurst, roast pork, bratwurst and the plate that we fell sucker to, the Oktoberfest-platte - a plate of meat for two consisting of different cuts of pork cooked in different ways, covered in gravy and served with mashed potatoes and onions. The Oktoberfest-platte didn’t come cheap at €27.50 and in hindsight it would probably have been more wise to go for a currywurst at €8.20 but then it was easy to get carried away at this party.

The music on offer was brought to us by a seven piece band that sang classic songs, and included a guitarist and saxophone player that got in amongst the crowds and played on the top of tables. There was even opportunity for audience participation when one man was brought to the stage to help chant and sing Bavarian drinking songs.

Overall the experience was great fun, the atmosphere was good and strangers became friends after clashing tankards together and humming along to songs that nobody knows the words to. It’s a great alternative to the real thing. This weekend will be the last Oktoberfest for another year so if you can I’d recommend you get yourself down there to see what it’s all about. Take a look at our article here for all the details.

There is also an Oktoberfest in the resort of Santa Ponsa which also runs until the 14th.