35,000 people expected for Maltese Oktoberfest

Lowenbrau Malta is expecting about 35,000 people to show up for the Maltese Oktoberfest next week.

As in previous Oktoberfests organised in Malta, this year's festival will take place in Lowenbrau's premises in Qormi, where specially brewed beer will be served in one-litre mugs brought over from Germany. The mugs can be bought, filled and refilled throughout the four evenings of the festival.

The venue will have tents with a number of beer stalls and a stage where a local line-up of singers will perform. A particular stall called The 1565 House of Rock, promoting the company's newest beer 1565, will serve as a platform for popular local bands.

Oktoberfest, a 200-year-old Bavarian beer festival held in autumn, attracted 6.3 million tourists to Munich last year. It started being celebrated in Malta in 1999 when the Lowenbrau brewery opened its gates to the public for a weekend of sausage-eating, song and beer-drinking.

At the Oktoberfest in Munich 13 million pints of beer were consumed, together with 380,000 sausages, 490,000 roasted chickens and 90 oxen.

Lowenbrau Malta managing director Paul Debattista said the Maltese liked festivals and the big response the company had received from locals when the first edition had been organised had motivated the brewery to keep organising the festival on a yearly basis.

"This is an activity for the family and an occasion for the company to thank its clients. In the past, we have given the possibility to people to visit the premises and to look at the brewing process," Dr Debattista said.

Since it opened in 1992, Lowenbrau has won a substantial share of the local market. The brewery, Dr Debattista said, was now completely owned by the Maltese.

The Maltese Oktoberfest starts on September 30 and ends on October 3. Doors open at 6 p.m. until late each night.