Anyone who has experienced Munich's famed Oktoberfest knows one truth about the world's biggest beer binge above all else: It's damn hard to get into one of those tents on the Theresienwiese.

My brother and I tried a few years ago, standing in the rain in several endless lines for nearly two hours, thirsty, with my brother turning to me and finally asking a question probably not often uttered in late September in Munich: "What do you have to do to get a beer at Oktoberfest?"

Ah, memories. They came rushing back as I clicked into a Der Spiegel story on Oktoberfest Inc. that was pimped on the World page of the New York Times online. The Times for a while now has had a content sharing agreement with Spiegel, Germany's most respected news magazine (which is trying to make inroads in the U.S. by publishing a very solid online edition in English).

The story recounts what a big, billion dollar business Oktoberfest has become, with more than 6.5 million visitors a year getting sloshed and doing stupid things (my brother stole a bike). It's a really interesting, behind the scene look at what it takes to put the event on (one tent owner pays €2 million a year just to set up and take down his 9,400 seat venue, to say nothing of the €400,000 or so in other costs he absorbs for insurance, musicians, etc.).

But I still have a question, which I'll direct to the Times: Why are you telling us all this now? The article is dated from last October, despite being hyped as "News from Der Spiegel" on the World page right now...in March. So it's really late to be reading about last year's Oktoberfest, and a little early to be reading set-up pieces for Fest '08.

Timing is everything with newspapers. I wonder what editor made the call to re-print this piece now.

New Braunfels, Texas, has been holding "Wurstfest -- The 10-day salute to sausage" for 46 years. While the rest of the world celebrates Oktoberfest, New Braunfels' residents wait a bit longer in the fall to honor another German favorite besides beer: sausage.

The fest kicks off with the traditional "biting of the sausage" (see photo) and continues with plenty of accordion music, and the chance to sample different types of wurst. There's bratwurst, of course, but also apple wurst, jalapeno wurst and more.

This year 125,000 visitors are expected.

[via Msnbc]

Looking for some more Oktoberfest fun? Check out Gadling's coverage of the festival!

To get you ready for this Oktoberfest season, we've advised you on what to wear-- Lederhosen, given you instructions on how to eat a Weisswurst, shown you the best carnival rides to try, and pointed you towards the best beer. To recap, we've hit dress, food, entertainment and libations. What's missing from this Oktoberfest round-up is dancing. To prevent the situation where you are left standing in your Lederhosen gazing into your beer mug, unsure of what to do on the dance floor, here's a lesson on the Chicken Dance. Any Oktoberfest celebration wouldn't be complete without it. Perhaps, you've seen it at a wedding. Even when guests are sloshed, this one is doable.

"It's hard to find a restaurant in the German city that doesn't serve weisswurst," writes Chris Gray, a freelance writer living in Heidelberg, Germany, for World Hum. "But it's said that the white sausages should never hear the noon church bells."

If you're heading to Munich for this year's Oktoberfest, there should be no escaping the traditional Bavarian breakfast of weisswurst. But there are rules to follow -- traditions to be aware of -- before you can dip a cut off of the albino veal sausage into a pool of sweet Bavarian mustard.

You can never be too prepared.

On where to go: "Once you find the right restaurant, seek out the table with a centerpiece that looks like a huge cast-iron ashtray and is labeled "Stammtisch." Never sit there. Grab the table nearest to it, however. In Germany, a restaurant's stammtisch is reserved for the regulars, and it's where all the action is."

On eating technique: "Now comes the tricky part. Weisswuerste are eaten peeled, and while the traditional technique is to snip open the ends and suck out the meat, you're best off using your silverware."

On recognizing a good sausage: "When you cut open a weisswurst, it should smell fresh, and the filling should swell out the ends-proof that the meat is of a high -quality and has been properly cooked."

Head over to World Hum for the full low-down on properly savoring Munich's whitest sausage.

If you wander just outside of the massive beer tents during Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, you'll find the funfair. What's cool about the funfair is all the crazy-looking carnival rides they have. In the United States, carnival rides are usually rusty death traps operated by drunk amputees, but the rides in the video above look absolutely amazing. Not only do they look safe, but I've never seen many of them before -- they even have full size roller coasters. At a carnival! The coolest ride is at 01:26 (remaining) -- the giant flipping, spinning, flower-like thing that dangles riders and shakes them about.

Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany runs from September 22, until October 7.

Even though Munich's Oktoberfest is the king of all beer festivals, another German bier celebration boasts its own record-setting statistics: The Berlin Beer Festival, in Berlin, Germany is home to the world's longest beer garden. Over a million people gather every August in Germany's capital city to drink beer, eat sausage, and celebrate Germany's love for every weizen, kölsch, and bock you can imagine. The mile-long beer garden boasts 1,200 different varieties of beer from 180 different brewers in Germany (of course), Czech Republic, Belgium, and the UK.

I'm not sure what the image above has to do with the Berlin Beer Festival, but I found it on the front page of their official website. Half-nude people, swords, perverted facial hair, and photoshopped surroundings. Awesome!

Where? Karl Marx Allee -- Berlin, Germany
When? August 3-5, 2007
How much? Free!
Official website: bierfestival-berlin.de

I'll confess up front that I had no idea the town of Mount Angel, Oregon is home to the state's biggest Oktoberfest celebration. In fact, If you asked me to put Oregon and Oktoberfest together in the same sentence I would have done so by saying something like "Oregon and Oktoberfest both begin with O" and that would be about it. But it turns out that the first sentence above is correct. And not only that, but for Oktoberfest connoisseurs, those who revel in Bavarian bliss, the Mount Angel Oktoberfest is about to get even more rapturous. Why? How? You ask. Well, the town is investing in what is said to be the nation's tallest glockenspiel. (gasp!) No!

Yes, dear people. The 49-foot glockenspiel (for the initiated...i.e. those who have never been to Munich...a glockenspiel is a clock tower with animated figures that sing and tell stories...sort of like the Osmonds meets the It's a Small World ride at Disneyland) will be the tallest in the United States and a photogenic centerpiece for the town's famous Oktoberfest.

Of course, no town would undertake such an expenditure without hoping it will draw crowds...so it's no surprise that the city is also building up its Oktoberfest celebration, getting the word out big time and having their PR folks blanket the media. That's cool, though, right? I mean, it might be nice for you West Coast folks to have a glockenspiel of your own. Those flights to Europe can take like, eight hours. Now you just have to go to Oregon, where the Helgas will bring you beer in fleece and Birkenstocks.