UK Oktoberfest Events 2026
At noon today the new Lord Mayor of Munich, Dominik Krause, needed two blows of the hammer to drive the tap into the first barrel, and shouted “O’zapft is!” Two is a good score. He had said beforehand he hoped for two or three, and it was his first go at it.
The 191st Wiesn runs until 4 October. If watching it has given you ideas, here is where Britain is pouring, sorted by one question: is the beer in the stein actually from Munich?
You can watch the whole thing from here. Bavaria’s own broadcaster, BR24, streams the tapping and the rest of the fortnight on YouTube: the parade of the landlords, the Trachten procession on the first Sunday, and the tents themselves. It is in German, and it does not matter in the slightest.
Tap lists and dates last checked 23 September 2026. Where a beer is named below, it is because a venue published it or we saw it on a live tap list, not because a listing said so.
Why that question is worth asking
Only six breweries may pour at the Wiesn, and oktoberfest.de names them: Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten. What they pour is Festbier: pale, dry, and built to be drunk by the litre for sixteen days. That is the beer being tapped in the tents this afternoon, and it is not the beer the festival started with.
Most British Oktoberfest nights are a German lager and an oompah playlist, which is a perfectly good night out and nobody should be sniffy about it. But a handful put genuine Wiesn beer in the stein, and if you have just watched Krause swing the hammer, you probably want to know which is which. So this list is in two halves, and the first half is short.
Where the actual Wiesn beer is
Twelve entries here pour at least one of the six, and four more sit in the regional lists below. Go here if you care what is in the glass. One rule for reading this section: “all six” is the venue’s claim, not our count. Both places making it advertise the Big Six without printing a full list, and neither names Augustiner, the one brewery of the six that barely leaves Bavaria. That is an absence from a webpage, not from a bar: it may be poured, or bottled, or neither. Worth asking before you build an evening around it.
19 Sept – 25 Oct
Albert’s Schloss
London (Soho) · Manchester · Birmingham · Liverpool All six claimed
The UK gold standard, and all four cities run the same season. Free entry, keg tapping, 19 September to 25 October at each. One caveat: their page bills “all of the Munich Big 6”, then names five: Spaten, Paulaner, Löwenbräu, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu. Augustiner is not among them, which would figure: it is the hardest of the six to get out of Munich. It may be there in bottle. Ask.
Each city has its own page: London · Manchester · Birmingham · Liverpool
30 September · 7–10:30pm
Caps and Taps
Tufnell Park, London 3 of 6: Paulaner, Augustiner, Hofbräu
Which answers the question the paragraph above leaves open. A party keg tapped at seven with hammer and tap, and the £15 ticket is a stein’s worth (two pints) of Paulaner Oktoberfest and a pretzel. Behind it, in bottle: Augustiner, with Weihenstephan, Hofbräu and Flotzinger, plus Sierra Nevada Festbier on keg. This is the only place on this list that names Augustiner, the one of the six that barely leaves Bavaria, and the one both all-six venues decline to print. It took a bottle shop. Sold out, and worth knowing about for next year: they run it every September.
18 Sept – 11 Oct
Kapital
Sheffield All six claimed
The strongest Big Six claim outside Albert’s, and the reason to go north for it: all six Festbiers in 1L steins, with a Paulaner wooden-barrel tapping on Fridays. The site says “all six official Oktoberfest beers” without listing them, and Paulaner is the only one it names.
25–26 Sept · three sessions
Oktoberfest at Kirkstall Brewery
Leeds 4 of 6: Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, Spaten
They publish the whole beer list, all twenty of it, which almost nobody does, and four of them are Munich’s: Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier 6.3%, Löwenbräu 6.1%, Paulaner 6% and Spaten 5.9%, every strength matching the official figure to the decimal. That is the highest count on this page anyone has actually shown their working for. The fifth German name is Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen at 5.8% (the export Märzen, not the 6% they brew for the Wiesn), so four, and a fifth that nearly counts. Augustiner is the gap, as it is everywhere. Past the six it stays serious: Weihenstephaner Festbier, Hefeweissbier and Helles, Tegernseer Hell, three Erdingers, two Fürstenbergs, Veltins, a Pülleken Helles, and four of Kirkstall’s own German-style beers including a Klosterkeller Keller Pils and an Altstadt Altbier. Friday 6–11pm, Saturday noon–5 and 6–11, with Bratwurst Brass playing two sets a session and karaoke after half nine on the evening ones. Tickets from £5.50, over-18s, not dog-friendly. Last year sold out.
17 Sept – 31 Oct
Munich Cricket Club
Victoria · Tower Hill · Canary Wharf 3 of 6: Paulaner, Löwenbräu, Spaten
Pouring Paulaner, Löwenbräu and Spaten plus other Munich beers. Multi-week, multi-venue season.
On the bar now · no ticket
Radio City Social
Chelmsford 3 of 6: Löwenbräu, Hofbräu, Spaten
Radio City Social publish a live tap list, and on 22 September it carried Löwenbräu Oktoberfestbier at 6.1%, Hofbräu at 6.3% and Spaten at 5.9%. Those are the official strengths, to the decimal, sitting on a guest list in an Essex bar with no tent, no ticket and no oompah. Newbarns’ Festival Bier at 5.6% and Sierra Nevada’s at 6% are on alongside them. In the fridge rather than on the bar, and worth asking for: Giesinger Festbier at 6%, a Munich brewery brewing to Wiesn strength that the tents will not have, the whole argument of this page in one bottle, plus Ayinger Fest-Märzen at 5.8% from just outside the city, and two Augustiners. One catch, and it is the point of this page: the fourth German name on the bar is Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen at 5.8%, the export Märzen, not the 6% Festbier they brew for the Wiesn. Those Augustiners are the Lagerbier Hell at 5.2% and the Weissbier at 5.4%, the everyday lager and the wheat, not the 6.3% Oktoberfest Bier nobody here seems able to get. So five of the six names are in the building and three of the six beers are. The one missing altogether is Paulaner, which is the easiest to find anywhere else on this page.
19 Sept – 31 Oct
Bermondsey Bierkeller
London Bridge Paulaner
Long-running cellar on Tooley Street with Paulaner on tap, one of the six, done properly as a Bierkeller night out, and six weeks of it from the grand opening on 19 September. The week has a shape: oompah band Thursdays and Saturdays, the Hosen Stage Band on Fridays, a bottomless Bavarian brunch on Saturday afternoons, and fire and stilt acts on Saturday nights. Two packages: the Feast at £45–55 gets a reserved bench, two steins and a food token; the Party at £20–30 is entry and a bench.
9–24 Oct · nine sessions
Oktoberfest on the Common
Clapham Common Paulaner partner
UK’s big outdoor tent, and by their own account Paulaner’s only official UK Oktoberfest partner, a named Wiesn brewery on the bar at party scale. They pour two south London breweries beside it, Jubel of Lambeth and Sambrook’s of Wandsworth, which no other big tent on this list can say.
21 Sept – 3 Oct
Brigadiers Bier Hall
Bank, London Paulaner
Paulaner steins and towers; Indian–Bavarian food. One of the six in a slightly unexpected room.
3 October · 6–11pm
Fulham Pier
Fulham, SW6 Löwenbräu
One night, five hours, in the Orange Box on the lower ground floor. Löwenbräu is one of the six, an actual Wiesn brewery rather than a German lager standing in for one. Three tickets: £15 to get in, £25 with a stein of it, £40 with a stein and a sausage. Band, DJs, roaming performers, and the Thames outside.
19 September · 6pm
Tiny Rebel Brewery Bar
Rogerstone, Newport 2 of 6: Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner
One night, and the most interesting bar on this list for anyone who read the companion essay: Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen at 5.8% alongside Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier, the old amber beer and the modern pale one, on the same bar, on the day Munich tapped. Guest beers, food specials and Oompah Cymru, which is a better band name than anything Bavaria has managed.
19 September – 4 October
Brewhemia
Edinburgh 5 of 6 on draught, all six in bottle
Scotland’s entry, and the deepest Big Six line-up on this page: five of Munich’s six on draught (Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten) and all six in bottle, which makes it the only venue here that names all six and says which format each one comes in. Albert’s Schloss and Kapital claim all six too; neither prints a list. The sixth is Augustiner, in bottle because, as their own account of it puts it, Augustiner is the only one of the six that still pours exclusively from wooden barrels. Alongside them Flotzinger Wies’n-Märzen, a Bavarian that only Caps and Taps otherwise carries, and Bitburger Premium Pils, in steins. Sixteen days on Market Street rather than a weekend, and the brass is booked by name across the three weekends: Flat Cap Brass on the 19th, Atomic Brass on the 26th, Loud Noises on the 3rd, a Leeds brass band whose record is twenty-three pop and dance covers, Bad Romance to Smooth Criminal, and not one oompah number among them. The Brass Rats have cancelled the 25th and the 2nd. Not to be confused with Edinburgh Oktoberfest at Central Hall in the list below, which is a different event a week later.
In the spirit
Same energy, looser about the exact Munich six. Steins, sausages, brass, and a crowd. Dressing up is optional. Sixty-four of them, by region, so you can find the one near you and stop reading. Then one at the end that is not an event at all.
London & South East
| From 11 Sept · no ticket | The Dial, Home of Meantime North Greenwich, SE10. There is a microbrewery on the premises, so the Oktoberfest beer is brewed where you drink it and poured tank to tap. Stein Well Spent, a Helles, from 11 September; and the reason this one is worth the trip: Prost to That, an actual 5.5% Märzen, from 25 September, amber and malty, the older style the Wiesn itself gave up. Walk in, or book a table. what’s on tap there now |
| 17 Sept – 4 Oct | Oktoberfest Canary Wharf Canary Wharf, E14. The estate runs its own Oktoberfest across three venues, opening two days before Munich does and closing the same Sunday. BrewDog goes the full stretch, 17 September to 4 October, and their Oktoberfest menu names four: Paulaner Oktoberfest and Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest, Paulaner Munich Hell at 4.9% and Hacker-Pschorr Kellerbier at 5.5%. Both Oktoberfests are printed as Märzen at 5.8%, the export beer, not the 6% Paulaner brew for the Wiesn, and the menu says so itself rather than leaving you to guess. Two of Munich’s six named and neither of them the beer from the tent, which is the whole distinction this page is about. Seen on the card at BrewDog Tower Hill and on their tap list when we scraped it, 25 September. MMY takes the last week, 28 September to 4 October, with £10 steins of lager or Hefeweizen, schnitzel at Dez Amore Burger, and live Oktoberfest music on Wednesday 30 September, 6–8pm. Amazing Grace does two Wednesdays, 23 and 30 September, with bratwurst, pretzels and Fat Brass, a five-piece brass band playing big hits with enough oompah to keep it honest. Not one Munich brewery is named across the three. The quiet joke is that the Wharf already has a venue pouring three of the six, because Munich Cricket Club is on this estate, on Hertsmere Road. It is not part of the promotion. |
| 18 Sept – 23 Oct | German Gymnasium King’s Cross. Warsteiner / König Ludwig steins, Friday oompah. |
| 19 Sept – 4 Oct · weekends · free | Clacton Pier Oktoberfest Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. The other entry that opens and closes with Munich: 19 September to 4 October, but across its three weekends rather than straight through: 19–20 and 26–27 September, then 3–4 October. Entry is free, which on this list is rare enough to lead with. Bratwurst, pretzels and marshmallows, an oompah band, and German beer they call authentic without naming a brewery, so take it as a good day out rather than a Wiesn. It is also the only one on this list held on a seaside pier, which counts for something in early October. |
| From 19 Sept | The King’s Arms 11A Buckfast St, Bethnal Green, E2 6EY: All six Wiesn breweries, the only entry on this page where we can show that rather than repeat it. Seven fest beers on keg at £7.95 a pint: Hofbräu 6.3%, Hacker-Pschorr 6%, Spaten 5.9%, Paulaner 6%, Löwenbräu 6.1%, plus Ayinger Fest-Märzen 5.8% and Flensburger Festbier 6.2%. The sixth Munich brewery came separately: Augustiner Oktoberfestbier, checked in here on 20 September, which is the hardest of the six to find in Britain. They are one of the few UK pubs pouring Augustiner on draught at all. No closing date announced; it runs while the kegs do. what’s on tap there now |
| 24–27 Sept · 11am–11:45pm | Three Wise Monkeys Colchester, Essex. Their annual one, run across two venues with Other Monkey Brewing’s taproom next door: a tap takeover of German beers served in steins while stocks last, or in taster racks if you would rather compare than commit, which is the sensible way to drink four Festbiers, and something almost nothing else here offers. Two-pint steins if you would rather commit after all. Food platters built for the beer, orderable in advance, and new for 2026 a ticketed Bierhall Experience in the restaurant. Thursday to Sunday, £5 a head deposit that comes off the bill. Book ahead; they say it fills every year. |
| 25 Sept · 7–10pm | The Old Brewery Greenwich, SE10. One night in the Pepys Building at the Old Royal Naval College, benches set out in front of the brewery tanks. A London lager rather than a Munich one: £25 gets a pint stein of Camden on arrival and a wurst voucher, with oompah from Fat Brass. Over 18s. what’s on tap there now |
| 25 Sept – 17 Oct · selected dates | Between the Bridges Southbank |
| Every Saturday · 26 Sept – 24 Oct | Flat Iron Square Borough, SE1. Staropramen and Jägermeister rather than anything from Munich; afternoon and evening sessions, oompah band, DJs late. |
| 26 Sept · 12–8pm | Anspach & Hobday: The Croydon Brewery Croydon, CR0. A brewery pouring its own: three Festbier-inspired beers brewed on site rather than anything shipped from Munich. £5 in and the first pint is included, Bavarian Boy on the food, Therapia Lane tram to the door. what’s on tap there now |
| 26 Sept & 3 Oct · 12–9pm | The Destination @ Lakeside Thurrock, Essex. Two Saturdays at the Lakeside funfair: live Bavarian bands and DJs, sausages, steins and dancing, in an indoor Bavarian bar that is new for 2026. Free entry to the park, no ticket needed. One thing worth knowing before you commit: the stein package is a 568ml stein, an imperial pint and not a Bavarian Maß, filled with German beer plus four refills, £36 on the day, £45 with a food token. |
| 26 Sept, 3 & 10 Oct | BOXPARK Croydon, Camden & Shoreditch. Three container yards, three Saturdays, and Staropramen rather than anything from Munich, a Czech pilsner, served by the two-pint stein. Croydon 26 Sept, 3–11pm, with an Oktoberfest Box Bingo the Friday before; Camden 3 Oct, 6–11pm; Shoreditch 10 Oct is a 2–6pm bottomless brunch rather than an evening hall. |
| 26 Sept · from 7pm | BrewDog Waterloo The Sidings, Waterloo Station, SE1. One Saturday night, priced in two tiers: £5 gets a ticket and a beer on arrival, a live oompah band, a sausage contest and a DJ until late. £15 adds a beer tasting, an all-you-can-eat food challenge, beer pong, best dressed and a photo booth with dress-up props. No Munich brewery named, and none claimed. This is the party end of the list, run by people who know it. The second BrewDog here: the Canary Wharf bar takes the long way round at two and a half weeks, while Waterloo puts the lot into one night. |
| 26 Sept · 2–11:30pm · free | The Alma Wandsworth, SW18. Their third year, and free to get in, which for a full day of it is close to unheard of on this page. Outside bars, German bar snacks, a live brass band from eight, and competitions running all day, including the return of the Lizzie eating contest, whose standing record is 21 hot dogs in a minute. No brewery named, so no claim made; go for the afternoon rather than the beer list. |
| 28 Sept – 31 Oct | BOXHALL Liverpool Street, EC2M. A City one that runs and runs, though Brigadiers up the road has the better claim on the beer: litre steins at £12.95 from 28 September to 31 October, live sport on, food hall kitchens around you. Staropramen, so Czech rather than Bavarian. It is billed as a stein offer. |
| 28 Sept – 4 Oct, 3 & 10 Oct | Mercato Metropolitano Elephant & Castle, Mayfair & Wood Wharf. Three food markets, three different Oktoberfests, and only two of them name a beer. Those two pour German Kraft, a London brewery with its own beer garden inside the Elephant & Castle market: litre steins of their own alongside guest fest beers brought in from German breweries, and a roaming oompah band: E&C on 3 October, Mayfair on the 10th, with pretzels and bratwurst. The best offer on this page comes with it: turn up in full Lederhosen or a Dirndl and the stein is free. Wood Wharf runs the longest of the three, 28 September to 4 October, with schnitzel and a German music evening on the 30th, but it names no brewery at all. |
| 1–3 Oct | London Oktoberfest Finsbury Park. Big tent, Bavarian FestBeer, thousands of people. |
| 2–4 Oct | Five Points Taproom Hackney. German guests (Veltins, Tegernseer etc.), not the Big Six, still a good beer crowd. |
| 3–4 Oct | Oktoberfest at The Cockpit The Cockpit, 4 Royal Parade, Chislehurst, BR7 6NR. Oktoberfest at micropub scale: Paulaner by the stein alongside festbier on cask from British brewers. Festbier is a lager style, so putting it in a cask is a properly odd thing to do. Sausages on the grill from 5pm Saturday, food again from noon Sunday. They are CAMRA’s Greater London Pub of the Year 2026, which is not a line most Oktoberfest hosts can put on the poster. |
| 3 Oct · 1–11pm · free | Beckenham RFC Oktoberfest Beckenham Rugby Club, Balmoral Avenue, BR3 3RD. Ten hours, three matches, no ticket. The beer is entirely south London: Anspach & Hobday (already on this list for their own Croydon Oktoberfest), plus Three Hounds from Beckenham itself and Drop Project from Mitcham. Oktoberfest beer in the style sense, then, with nothing from Munich and no pretence otherwise. The rugby is the draw: Beckenham Ladies 1XV against Bath Ladies 1XV at 1pm, then the Mens 1XV against Brighton and the 3XV against Old Elthamians 2XV at 3pm, which the club says is the first time its men’s and women’s first teams have played one after the other. Currywurst and bratwurst from Flavour Culture, pizza from Deeply Dough. |
| 3 Oct · 7–11:30pm | 40FT Oktoberfest 40FT Brewery, Lockwood Way, Walthamstow E17. One Saturday night on the Blackhorse Beer Mile, £11.55, and the ticket includes the stein itself to take home, which is a better souvenir than most of this list hands you. 40FT started life in a forty-foot shipping container by Dalston Junction, and the beer names still carry that postcode (Dalston Sunrise, Dalston Sunset, Ridley Road Blackberry), though the party is up at Lockwood Way. No Munich beer here and none pretended: their range runs to pales, hazies and sours, and the most German thing in it is Disco Pils, a 4% German pilsner. A brewery party with steins on, then, rather than a Wiesn. |
| 3, 10, 17 & 24 Oct · 2–9pm | Camden Oktoberfest Electric Ballroom, Camden. Four Saturday afternoon sessions, tenth year. Bavarian hall dressing, long tables, bratwurst and Currywurst, steins, and staff in Dirndl and Lederhosen; fancy dress encouraged. Their own blurb also lists the 31st, but neither the poster nor the ticket page offers it. Four is what you can actually buy. |
| 3 Oct · 2pm–midnight | Cramptons Broadstairs, Kent. A sports bar that turns itself into a beer hall for ten hours, which is a longer single session than anything else here. Live music, German food, and the interactive darts still running in the back. The furthest east this list reaches, and the only Kent entry on it. |
| 9–10 Oct | We Brought Beer Tooting Market, SW17. Billed by them as “(slightly late) Oktoberfest 2026”, which is the most honest headline on this page. Munich packs up on the Sunday before and they say so themselves, then argue it makes this the after-party. You could do both, five days apart. Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October, their annual one. Bavarian beers on tap and in bottle, no brewery named and so no claim made, and a free Brezn with every pour while stocks last. |
| 9 & 10 Oct · 6–11pm | GG’s Bar Oktoberfest Newport, Isle of Wight. The only one on this list that needs a ferry. Two nights at GG’s Island Riding Centre: London Oompah Band, a DJ, party games and Bavarian serving staff. £10 first-release earlybird, £12.50 standard; a front table of ten is £450 with table service, a Bavarian buffet and a souvenir stein filled once. German beer, unnamed. Not Tiny Rebel’s Newport, which is the Welsh one. |
| 10 Oct | Oktoberfest Guildford Merrist Wood College, Guildford |
| 10 Oct · £7.70–13.20 | Popworld Oktoberfest Popworld, Guildford. Steins and retro anthems, which is a club night wearing lederhosen and is honest about it. Worth knowing there are two different Oktoberfests in Guildford on the same day: this one, and the tour’s Merrist Wood field a few miles out. Cheaper before 10pm. |
| 10 Oct · 12–9pm · free | Oktoberfest Brewing Brothers Brewery, Hastings: The Festbier is brewed in East Sussex, not bought in from Munich: Wurst Case Scenario at 5.6%, made with Lost Pier Brewing, and an Oompah Munich Helles at 5.3% that is gluten free, rarer at a beer festival than it ought to be. Free entry for nine hours, food, steins and games, live music from The Sazeracs, prizes for best costume and a new beer launched on the day. No Munich names on the bar and none claimed. what’s on tap there now |
| 14 Oct · from 6pm | Oktober Alleyfest Mason’s Avenue, EC2V. Two pubs on the same alley, playing each other. The Masons Arms at 12–14 and The Old Doctor Butler’s Head at number 2, close enough that the whole evening happens in the passage between them. Four games and two teams: boat race, stein hold, keg roll and pub trivia, with bragging rights the only prize named. No brewery claimed and no Wiesn pretended. This is the City doing Oktoberfest as a sports day, which is a better reason to be on Mason’s Avenue on a Wednesday than a stein offer. what’s on tap there now |
| 16–17 Oct | BREW//LDN Oktoberfest Olympic Park. Craft-led beer fest with an Oktoberfest coat of paint. |
| 16–17 Oct | Hertfordshire Oktoberfest Hertfordshire. Run by Oktoberfest Tour Limited, who also do the Bath weekend a fortnight later; those two are their whole 2026 programme. Big-tent format, live entertainment, steins. |
| 17 Oct · 2–9pm | Brixton Oktoberfest Freight Brixton, SW9. Their first, on the rooftop: live traditional brass and singalongs through the afternoon, then the evening handed over to DJs. A shipping-container yard rather than a tent, in the middle of October. |
| 23–24 Oct | Oktoberfest Essex Central Park, Chelmsford. A proper marquee in the middle of town, three ticketed sessions across the weekend and a separate ticket for each, from £15. Two-pint steins, German food from a row of vendors, and oompah bands doing what the organisers call “oompop”: traditional tunes folded into modern ones, with the thigh-slapping and the audience participation. Strictly 18+, Challenge 25, and nothing carried in. No brewery is named anywhere on their site, so go for the tent rather than the tap list. |
| 23–24 Oct | Oktoberfest Southampton Guildhall Square, SO14. Ninth year, and it bills itself as the biggest in the country: a themed beer marquee dropped into the civic square, thousands through it, oompah bands and DJs across the weekend, a food court with vegan options. Tickets start at £5, with standing, seated and VIP tables above that. The beer is “top UK suppliers” rather than any named brewery. This is a festival first. |
| 23–24 Oct | Brighton’s Oktoberfest Shelter Hall, Kings Road Arches, BN1. On the seafront, in the arches, which is the most interesting room of the three: four sessions across the Friday and Saturday only, communal tables, and an arrival pint included in every ticket. The Oomparty Band do the singalongs and the games. 18+. One weekend and then it is over, so it goes early. |
| 23 Oct · 6:30–10pm · £25 | Ship Inn Havant Havant, Hampshire. A one-night Oktoberfest in a pub. £25 covers a welcome beer and a bratwurst, with an oompah band live in the room. Just outside Portsmouth, a week before the tour reaches the Guildhall. |
Midlands & North
| From 23 Sept · all weekend | Oktoberfest ’26 Kraft Werks, Nottingham: Five of Munich’s six, on at once, read off their own board: Hacker-Pschorr 5.8%, Spaten 5.9%, Paulaner 6.0%, Löwenbräu 6.1% and Hofbräu 6.3%, every one of them an Oktoberfestbier. The absentee is Augustiner, which is the one no UK venue pours. Next to them, Tegernseer Hell at 4.8%, a Helles rather than a Festbier, and priced like one: £3.30 a half against £3.90 for the Munich five, £7.80 a pint, and litre steins around £13. Bratwurst from Essen General Store on the opening night only, pretzels from Tied Up In Notts. Walk-ins on the Wednesday; they ask you to message ahead for a weekend table. what’s on tap there now |
| 26 Sept · 2–8pm | An Almost Authentic Oktoberfest Rooster’s Taproom, Harrogate: Their name for it, not ours, and the qualifier is earned: their range is pale ales, IPAs, stouts and a bitter, with exactly one lager in it, a Festbier at 5.2%, a Festbier by style and still short of Wiesn strength. So rather than pretend, they are bringing German lager in, all of it, as it turns out, from one Stuttgart brewer. Dinkelacker’s Volksfestbier and Hell, Sanwald’s Hefe Weizen, Cluss Kellerpils and Schwaben Bräu Meister Pils are four brands of the same Swabian company, Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu, which sells almost entirely within Baden-Württemberg. Not a drop of it from Munich, and the Volksfestbier is a festival beer, just not this festival’s. It is brewed for Stuttgart’s Cannstatter Volksfest, which does the same thing Munich does, at the same time of year, with its own beers specially brewed by Dinkelacker, Schwaben Bräu and Stuttgarter Hofbräu. They pour their own alongside, including a limited-edition collaboration with Green Cheek Beer Co of California brewed for the day. A Bavarian festival in Yorkshire with a beer from the west coast of America is about as almost-authentic as it gets, and they say so on the poster. Their first ever, six hours, £14.95, and the ticket includes a tankard and a hat. Oompah band, festival food, games, best-dressed prizes. Dogs welcome, children 10 and over with an adult. |
| 1–4 & 8–11 Oct | Freight Island Manchester. Free-entry venue takeover; more drag/comedy than classic Wiesn, still steins and a crowd. |
| From 1 Oct · Thu–Sun | BAR Events Temple Arches, Leeds |
| 2–3 Oct | Oktoberfest Doncaster Doncaster Racecourse |
| 2–3 Oct · £10 | OktoBEARfest Beartown Brewery, Congleton, Cheshire. Their fifth year of it, and they have not skimped: a live 30-piece brass oompah band, which is comfortably the biggest band named anywhere on this page. Friday 2 October from 7pm, Saturday 3 October from noon, both till late. £10 a ticket with a beer token on arrival and kids free, which makes it one of the cheapest days out here. German food vendors, free Hammerschlagen, and their own limited-edition OktoBEARfest beers by the stein. No Munich names, and none claimed. The pun is load-bearing, too: the beers are the Bears, and the freshest of them is what fills the stein. |
| 2 & 3 Oct · from 7pm · free | Triple Point Brewing Sheffield, S1. A brewery pouring its own: the Oktoberfest beer is a Märzen they brew on site, 4.8%, rather than a German lager bought in. Two nights of live music in the beer garden and free to get in: Kase Chiefs on the Friday for the oompah favourites and games on stage, The Brassmix on the Saturday bringing brass with an EDM twist: Ibiza classics rather than anything from a Munich tent. Music from 7pm both nights. what’s on tap there now |
| 3 Oct | Docktoberfest Hill Dickinson Stadium, Liverpool. Sold out, waitlist |
| Saturdays 10, 17, 24 Oct | Oktoberfest Newcastle Times Square |
| 10 Oct · 12–10pm | Schwein Fest The Portly Pig, Ripon. Their annual one, back again after last year. “Bavarian beer on tap all day” is as specific as the billing gets. No brewery named anywhere, so read it as a German lager rather than a Wiesn beer unless they say otherwise. Food from Norton’s Deli in Ripon, noon till 7pm or until it sells out: bratwurst, a cheese Käsekrainer or a spicy beef frankfurter, each on a bun with sauerkraut and German red cabbage at £8, and a pretzel with cheese dip at £3. The Bavarian music from 4pm is a soul duo, Vic and Joey of Ripon City Soul, which is a booking worth turning up for whatever is in the stein. Ten hours, and they ask you to dress to impress. |
| 10 Oct · 1–5:30pm & 6:30–11pm | Oktoberfest Derby Ultra Warehouse. Warehouse turned Bavarian hall; oompah band and German beer (not named as Big Six). |
| 16–17 & 23–24 Oct | Yorktoberfest York Racecourse |
| 17 Oct | BOXPARK Liverpool Liverpool |
| 23–24 Oct | Wingtoberfest OUT Nottingham. Wing Fest crossed with Oktoberfest, which is either the best or the worst idea on this page and possibly both. Steins alongside the wings, long tables, DJs and eating contests, from half eleven on the Friday through to eleven on the Saturday night. No German brewery named; the beer is not the point here, and nobody is pretending it is. |
| Selected Oct dates | Bierkeller Nottingham & Birmingham Nottingham · Birmingham |
| Saturdays in Oct · £42.50 | The Lawn Club Manchester. An Oktoberfest brunch, every Saturday of the month: one main and a side, then 90 minutes of bottomless beer, wine and cocktails for £42.50. Table dancing openly encouraged. The cocktails give away what this is (a bottomless brunch in a dirndl rather than a beer festival), and it is priced accordingly. |
Scotland, Wales, South West & East
| 25 Sept – 3 Oct | Arcadia Oktoberfest Arcadia Exeter, 6 Northernhay Place, EX4 3QJ. Nine days run by Utopian, a Devon brewery whose whole identity is German lager: a Helles, a Czech pilsner, a Maibock, a Doppelbock and a Vienna keller before they are anything else. This is a British brewery that brews these styles all year and has simply put a date on one of them. Three fixed points: a launch evening of beer and food on Friday 25 September, 5–9pm, £25; Meet the Brewer on Tuesday 29 September, 6:30–8:30pm, which is the only one of those anywhere on this page; and a closing party on Saturday 3 October: BBQ and steins from noon, DJ and cocktails from five, and free entry. |
| 25–26 Sept | Cambridge Oktoberfest Jesus Green |
| 25–26 Sept · three sessions | Aberdeen Oktoberfest CHEERZ, 2 Exchange Street, AB11 6PH: Paulaner is the Munich name on this bar, and beside it Fierce Oktoberfest, brewed in Aberdeen itself, plus Tennent’s Lager Bavarian. A Munich beer, a local one and a Scottish lager in lederhosen, on the same three taps, most of this page’s argument standing in a row. Three sessions across the weekend: Friday 7–11pm, Saturday 1–5pm and again 6–10pm, tables or standing, limited capacity, tickets through Skiddle. Food from Market Arms, and the oompah is The Brass Rats, an Edinburgh six-piece (five brass and a drummer) whose set runs from a German oompah march to Knights of Cydonia, and who also play Brewhemia at the other end of the country. |
| 26 Sept | SWG3 Oktoberfest Glasgow |
| 26 Sept | Prospect Building Bristol. Ticketed Bavarian party. Confirm the beer list on the day. |
| 2–3 Oct | OktoberWEST WEST on the Green, Glasgow. House Oktoberfest lager. |
| Fridays 2, 9, 16, 23 & 30 Oct | Brewpoint Oktoberfest Bedford. Every Friday of the month at a working brewery with 140 years of history behind it, the Charles Wells lineage, rebuilt on the edge of town. A live German oompah band, and a new one for 2026. Their own beer rather than an import, which puts it on the honest side of this list even though no Munich name appears. |
| 3, 10, 17 & 24 Oct · two sessions | Oktoberfest Cardiff Tiger Yard, Cardiff Bay, CF10. Four Saturdays at the open-air container yard on Porth Teigr Way, each split in two: 12:00–16:30 and 17:00–21:30, so pick one rather than assuming it runs through. Live oompah band, German street food alongside the yard’s own kitchens, themed decor, games, steins. |
| 8–10 Oct | Edinburgh Oktoberfest Central Hall. Indoor Bavarian FestBeer sessions. |
| 17 Oct · 12–5pm & 6–11pm | Oktoberfest Cornwall Monkey Tree Holiday Park, Newquay. Imported pilsner in 2-pint steins, oompah, big tent; early-bird £4 pint window on standing tickets. |
| 30–31 Oct | Bath Oktoberfest Bath. Oktoberfest Tour Limited again, closing the season on the last weekend of October, three weeks after Munich has packed up, a last day it now shares with the Oktoberfest UK tour’s Portsmouth stop. |
Wherever you are
No tent within travelling distance, or the weekend already spoken for? One chain has put a freshly brewed Festbier inside thirteen towns, several of which have no tent at all. Failing that, the beer will come to you.
| 19 Sept – 4 Oct | Brewhouse & Kitchen Thirteen brewpubs, Chester down to Worthing: the only entry on this page that runs Munich’s exact dates without a break, 19 September to 4 October, opening and closing on the same days as the Wiesn. Every site brews on the premises, so this is not one beer thirteen times: the 2026 pair is a Festbier at 5.6% and a Helles at 4.8%, and Untappd already has Chelmsford’s Helles at exactly that strength and Portsmouth’s older house Oktoberfest as a 5.5% Märzen. And the Festbier is not just a promise on a poster: a 5.6% Oktoberfest Märzen was checked in at their Cardiff brewpub on 20 September. Somebody drinking the thing, at the strength advertised, the day after it started. Same badge over the door, different beer in the glass, which is the whole argument for a brewpub chain. Bratwurst, currywurst, pork knuckle and a pretzel-and-pint deal alongside; Dorchester runs an oompah party on Saturday 3 October. Cardiff, Cheltenham, Chelmsford, Chester, Bournemouth, Dorchester, Gloucester Quays, Highbury, Lichfield, Portsmouth, Southampton, Southsea and Worthing. |
| 2–31 Oct · nine cities · from £15 | Oktoberfest UK Chichester to Beverley. One operator, nine towns, and the thing none of the nine websites mentions: Oktoberfest Essex and Oktoberfest Guildford, both listed under London & South East as local events, are two stops on this circuit. Each town gets its own domain and its own name, so each reads as a local institution; the tickets all check out through the same account. Chelmsford is 23–24 October at Central Park and Guildford the 10th at Merrist Wood; both keep their own rows under that heading, since each has detail this one cannot carry. The other seven: Chichester (Westgate Fields) and Colchester (Lower Castle Park) on 2–3 October (a different Colchester event from Three Wise Monkeys, three weeks earlier), then Milton Keynes (Campbell Park) on the 10th, Southend (Priory Park) 16–17th, Beverley (the racecourse) on the 17th, Plymouth (Central Park) on the 24th, and Portsmouth (the Guildhall) on the 31st, sharing the season’s last day with Bath. Bavarian beer bar, oompah bands, XL steins, bratwurst, a mini trader village and a glitter station; from £15. And it is not Oktoberfest Tour Limited, who run the Hertfordshire and Bath weekends and list nothing else for 2026. Two operators, near-identical names, nothing else in common. Neither names a brewery. |
| Any night · 0.0 miles | Home Sweet Home Your sofa. The closest venue on this page, and the only one that is not one of the seventy-six. All six of Munich’s will post to you, which is more than anywhere else on this page can say. They sit close together: Hofbräu and Augustiner at 6.3%, Löwenbräu 6.1%, Paulaner 6%, Spaten 5.9%, Hacker-Pschorr 6%, because a Wiesn beer has to: 13.5% Stammwürze minimum, which lands at about six. Beer Merchants carry four of them, roughly £3.65–4.30 a bottle. Beers of Europe have the lot in stock: Löwenbräu, Hofbräu, Spaten and Paulaner at £3.69, Hacker-Pschorr at £3.79, and Augustiner (the one no venue on this page pours, which Caps and Taps could only get in bottle before selling out) at £4.39. Beerhunter box the six together instead (£29.95 for one of each, £54.95 for two), which is about seven pounds more than the same six bought loose at the prices above, and worth it only if you would rather not do the shopping. Going the other way, Prost! Bottle Shop in Bebington keep the six on the shelf and then carry on past them: Hohenthanner, Arcobräu, Aldersbacher, Zötler, Giesinger and Auerbräu, Bavarian Festbiers and Märzens that never see the Wiesn and seldom reach Britain on their own. Collection from the Wirral, or delivery. Two of them need no ordering at all this autumn: Lidl are stocking Kalea’s Bavarian festbeer tasting box, with Aldersbacher and Hohenthanner among the bottles. It is a seasonal line, so it is there until it is not. Lidl’s own Perlenbacher Festbier sits near it in a five litre keg with a tap on the front, £16.99, which is the closest a sofa gets to a tent. It is 5.5%, but the small print on the back gives 12.3° Stammwürze, under the 13.5 Munich insists on, so it is a Festbier by name rather than by the Wiesn’s rule. There is a Perlenbacher Wheat Festbier in cans beside it, which is the other thing a tent will pour you. The Spaten stacked alongside it is Münchner Hell, the everyday Helles, not the brewery’s Oktoberfestbier. Which is the quiet joke of the whole list: the six are harder to drink in a tent than to buy in a box. British brewers worth the postage instead: Anspach & Hobday (already on this list, for Croydon), Lost & Grounded, Newbarns, Braybrooke, Donzoko and Pilot all have a Festbier out this autumn, and Left Field, who we wrote about in April, add Cloudwater’s, Verdant’s and Polly’s. No ticket, no bench, no oompah. Dress up anyway. |
The cheat sheet
| If you want… | Go to |
|---|---|
| All six Wiesn beers | Albert’s Schloss (any city) or Kapital in Sheffield |
| At least one official Munich name | Munich Cricket Club, Bermondsey Bierkeller, Oktoberfest on the Common, Brigadiers, Fulham Pier, Brewhemia (Edinburgh), Tiny Rebel Brewery Bar (Newport) |
| A brilliant messy night | Clapham Common, Finsbury Park, Newcastle, York, Between the Bridges |
| Märzen and Festbier side by side | Tiny Rebel Brewery Bar, Newport: tonight only |
| The beer list published in full | Kirkstall Brewery, Leeds: twenty beers, four of the six |
| Munich’s exact dates, nowhere near Munich | Brewhouse & Kitchen: thirteen brewpubs, 19 Sept to 4 Oct |
| A Festbier on a normal Tuesday | The PINtPOINT app: Festbier is now a style you can filter by |
One more, and it is not Oktoberfest. Alexandra Palace bills “London’s largest German Bier Festival” for Saturday 7 November, but it sits inside the Fireworks & Drone Festival, gates at four, from £11.50, with a Queen tribute band and a drone show rather than an oompah tent. Two days after Bonfire Night, a month after Munich packed up. Worth saying because several London round-ups put it on 30–31 October: the palace’s own page says 7–8 November, and the bier hall is the Saturday. We have not counted it among the seventy-six, because it is not one of them. It is here as the last place in the calendar that will hand you a German beer in a field.
Dates and beer lists change. Check the linked page before you travel, especially the ones that claim all six.
Questions people actually ask
Which UK Oktoberfest events actually serve real Munich beer?
Sixteen of the seventy-six entries on this page pour a Wiesn beer from at least one of Munich’s six licensed breweries, the Festbier the tents serve, not an export Märzen carrying the same brewery’s name. Albert’s Schloss and Kapital claim all six. The King’s Arms in Bethnal Green is the only one we can show it for: five on its own board, and the sixth, Augustiner’s Oktoberfestbier, the hardest of them to find here, in a check-in logged there on 20 September, which does not say whether it was draught or bottle. Kraft Werks in Nottingham and Brewhemia in Edinburgh pour five, everything but Augustiner, and Brewhemia has the sixth in bottle, so every Wiesn brewery is drinkable in one room. Kirkstall Brewery in Leeds pours four and publishes the full list. Caps and Taps, Munich Cricket Club and Radio City Social in Chelmsford pour three. Tiny Rebel Brewery Bar pours two. Bermondsey Bierkeller, Brigadiers, Oktoberfest on the Common, The Cockpit in Chislehurst and Aberdeen Oktoberfest at CHEERZ pour Paulaner and Fulham Pier Löwenbräu. Everything else on this page is a German lager and an oompah band, which is a perfectly good night and a different thing.
What are the six official Oktoberfest beers?
Only six Munich breweries may pour at the Wiesn, a rule resting on the Munich and German purity laws and a 1990 court ruling: Augustiner and Hofbräu at 6.3%, Löwenbräu 6.1%, Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr 6%, Spaten 5.9%. They cluster there because a Wiesn beer must be brewed within the city to a minimum 13.5% Stammwürze, which lands at about six per cent.
Is Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen the beer served at Oktoberfest?
No. Hacker-Pschorr brew two: Oktoberfest Märzen at 5.8%, the amber export beer sold here, and Oktoberfestbier / Superior Festbier at 6%, the pale one actually served in their Wiesn tent. Three venues on this page pour the 5.8% Märzen. It is a good beer; it is not the Wiesn beer. British importers stock the Märzen because the Märzen is the one that gets exported.
Which UK venue pours the most Munich beer?
Kirkstall Brewery in Leeds, at four of six: Hofbräu 6.3%, Löwenbräu 6.1%, Paulaner 6% and Spaten 5.9%, every strength matching the official figure. It is also the only one that publishes its whole twenty-beer list, so it is the highest count anyone has shown their working for. Two venues claim all six and publish no list.
Why is Augustiner so hard to find in the UK?
Augustiner is the smallest and least exported of the six, and the only one no venue on this page pours on draught. Caps and Taps in Tufnell Park managed it in bottle and sold out. Their everyday Lagerbier Hell is a different matter: six UK pubs now pour it on draft, after years in which nobody here could get it at all. But that is the 5.2% everyday lager, not the 6.3% Oktoberfest Bier brewed for the Wiesn, the same right-brewery-wrong-beer swap that catches people out with Hacker-Pschorr. For the Oktoberfest one, mail order is the realistic route.
Is Oktoberfest Essex the same as Oktoberfest Guildford?
Yes. Both are stops on one nine-city tour, along with Chichester, Colchester, Milton Keynes, Southend, Beverley, Plymouth and Portsmouth. Each town gets its own domain and its own local-sounding name, and none of the nine sites mentions the others. They share one ticketing account. It is a real event either way; it is not a local institution.
When is Oktoberfest 2026, and when do the UK events run?
Munich’s 191st Wiesn ran 19 September to 4 October 2026. British events run far longer, from 11 September to 31 October, with one German bier hall at Alexandra Palace on 7 November. Two entries match Munich’s exact window: Brewhouse & Kitchen straight through across thirteen brewpubs, and Clacton Pier across its three weekends.
Are any UK Oktoberfest events free?
Several. Clacton Pier is free entry across all three weekends, Triple Point Brewing in Sheffield is free on both nights, and The Destination @ Lakeside charges nothing to get in. The Dial in North Greenwich needs no ticket at all. Elsewhere tickets start at £5: Anspach & Hobday in Croydon, BrewDog Waterloo and Oktoberfest Southampton all open there, and Kirkstall is £5.50.
Know one we have missed?
This list is seventy-six events, and it is certainly not all of them. Local beer halls, one-night stein parties, a brewery tap doing a Bavarian weekend. If you know one that should be here, tell us and we will add it: [email protected]. If you know which beers it actually pours, even better.
Companion essay: September is Oktoberfest, on why twelve of the sixteen days fall in September, how Munich moved from amber Märzen to pale Festbier between 1953 and about 1990, and why America kept the amber. And Everything Traditional About Oktoberfest Is Younger Than the Tent, on the 1898 scandal that produced the giant tents, and the 1907 settlement that produced the brewery halls.