Oktoberfest 2009
Tuesday, 10 February, 12.26 AM
The MGS Oktoberfest 2009 was a roaring success, and the most successful one yet! All the tickets were sold out, and more people came than the number of tickets sold. An estimated 1400 people turned up to enjoy German music and food on 31st October. There had been fears that the absence of a live band would dampen the atmosphere, but most happily for us all, that did not turn out to be the case.
The Oktoberfest was declared open by none other than YAB Lim Guan Eng, the Chief Minister of Penang, who declared to many approving cheers that Penang would be much less of an international city without the local German community. Many old acquaintances were renewed during that evening of bee and cheer. it wasn’t that easy to be heard above the din, but anyway most messages got across. The German companies in Penang did their bit with game stalls. The traditional B.Braun and Robert Bosch game stalls did brisk business and tested many a visitor’s skills with their games of dexterity and strength. There was this pesky little game with the loop and the winding wire path at the B.Braun stall that was even difficult before having a few beers…
There was lots of food, with very long queues in front of the Euro-Deli stall that sold German food – Grillkasseler, Sauerkraut, all sorts of sausages, etc., etc. – and the beer stall from Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr and Anchor. Even the MGS had its own sausage stand. Besides that Lebkuchen, beer mugs and Oktoberfest T-shirts were sold. The DJ and the Penang Dirndl Dancers put up a commendable performance, which really contributed a lot to the good atmosphere at the Oktoberfest.
We hope that we can get a live band again next year, and we intend to address the shortcomings detected this year. The Malaysian-German Society thanks the visitors, the support crews and the Penang State Government for making this year’s Oktoberfest a roaring success, and we hope to do even better next year.
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