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 the only question that matters once the oompah starts: 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.
Why that question is worth asking
Only six breweries may pour at the Wiesn — Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Hofbräu, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Spaten — and 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
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 — we checked. 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.
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.
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
Held back from the first version of this list until its dates firmed up; they have. 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, which is worth more than a fortnight of most things on this page. 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 2 of 6 — Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr
Scotland’s entry, and it prints its taps, which is more than most: Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest brews, plus Flotzinger Wies’n-Märzen and Bitburger Premium Pils, in steins, with bottled German beer behind. Two of the six named outright and a third Bavarian that only Caps and Taps otherwise carries. 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, The Brass Rats on the 25th and the 2nd, Atomic Brass on the 26th, Loud Noises on the 3rd. 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 a bonus rather than the point. Thirty-eight 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 |
| 18 Sept – 23 Oct | German Gymnasium King’s Cross — Warsteiner / König Ludwig steins, Friday oompah. |
| 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, 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. |
| 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 — a stein offer rather than an Oktoberfest, which is a perfectly fair thing to want on a Tuesday in the City. |
| 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, 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. |
| 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 the Newport further down this page — Tiny Rebel’s is the Welsh one. |
| 10 Oct | Oktoberfest Guildford Merrist Wood College, Guildford |
| 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. |
| 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. |
Midlands & North
| Selected Oct dates | Bierkeller Nottingham & Birmingham Nottingham · Birmingham |
| 1–4 & 8–11 Oct | Freight Island Manchester — Free-entry venue takeover; more drag/comedy than classic Wiesn — still steins and a crowd. |
| From 2 Oct · Thu–Sun | BAR Events Temple Arches, Leeds |
| 2–3 Oct | Oktoberfest Doncaster Doncaster Racecourse |
| 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 · 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 |
Scotland, Wales, South West & East
| 25–26 Sept | Cambridge Oktoberfest Jesus Green |
| 26 Sept | SWG3 Oktoberfest Glasgow |
| 26 Sept | Prospect Building Bristol — Ticketed Bavarian party — confirm beer list on the day. |
| 2–3 Oct | OktoberWEST WEST on the Green, Glasgow — House Oktoberfest lager. |
| 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 — the latest thing on this list, three weeks after Munich has packed up. |
Wherever you are
For everyone the three lists above do not reach — no tent within travelling distance, or a weekend already spoken for — the beer will come to you instead.
| 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 forty-eight. All six of Munich’s will post to you, which is more than anywhere above this line 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. 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 |
| 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 forty-eight, 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.
Know one we have missed?
This list is forty-eight events, and it is certainly not all of them. Eight of them came in from readers within days of publishing — Tiny Rebel, Flat Iron Square, Anspach & Hobday, The Old Brewery, The Dial, The Destination at Lakeside, Caps and Taps and Triple Point Brewing — which is exactly how this is supposed to work. 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 — why twelve of the sixteen days fall in September, how Munich swapped its amber Märzen for pale Festbier, and why America kept the old one. And Everything Traditional About Oktoberfest Is Younger Than the Tent — the 1898 scandal that produced the giant tents, and the 1907 settlement that produced the six-brewery rule this whole list is sorted by.
Sources
- oktoberfest.de — the 191st Oktoberfest, 19 September to 4 October 2026, the six Wiesn breweries, and Lord Mayor Dominik Krause
- The tapping itself — watched live on BR24, Bayerischer Rundfunk’s news channel, 12:00 Munich time, 19 September 2026
- Every event listing links to the organiser’s own page, which is where the dates and beer lists come from