Best Ofest yet for the Hacker Herren in 2023. 106 guys and 44 rookies all staying in one hotel. Ash literally didn't know anyone in the group, yet embraced the "gemutlichkeit". He laughed, smiled, drank, and WORE THE CHICKEN SUIT! No wonder Andy "Ash" Ashley is ROY23. Pudge won the HAM award to nobody's surprise. He is hilarious running the awards ceremony on top of his nearly 20 years of attending Ofest. Congrats to all!!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Ofest'ers past and future reunion at Ruby Hill Winery Jan 22, 2009
Make your plans to attend the reunion party for anyone who has been in our group in the past or anyone who thinks it looks fun and may join in the future. Mike (Leppie) Callahan will be hosting us at the gorgeous new Ruby Hill Winery in Pleasanton, CA www.rubyhillwinery.net
We will convene the festivities on Jan 22, 2009 at 7:00pm
We will of course have Daryl's (Dee) famous slideshow, great food, German beer and maybe even some barrel tasting from the Ruby Hill wines. We have arranged the shindig during the All Star break in the NHL season so our mouthpiece, Randy (Hahn) Hahn...very original name bro.. can join us. He swears he is coming back for his 6th year in 2009. We may also have an NHL'er with us in 2009, right Randy?
We are definitely going to have a special guest join us at the reunion... It will be worth it for you to arrange your schedule accordingly
Monday, October 20, 2008
SAVE THE DATE FOR OFEST '09 Sept 24-26, 2009
We are also looking at Jan 16 for the OFEST '08 reunion. Time and date to be firmed up later but this is what we are currently looking at... All veterans of Ofests past are welcome
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Oktoberfest Memories
Congrats EVERYONE to an amazing trip this year! We all survived and have stories to tell. I have to say, it was my BEST Oktoberfest ever. Maybe it was due to the quality rookies and watching them experience OFest for the first time. Maybe it was partying with all the other veterans and meeting new professional beer drinkers. Or, perhaps it was spending time with family and dancing like a fool with blatant disregard for life's normal responsibility.
Regardless, it was the best. I think we all owe a big 'Danke' to Ken Bloom for the set-up and execution of a flawless trip. The Saturday night meeting at the Tryp hotel was a highlight!
Our Servers! Mathias / Micha / Eric / Dominik ~ the all star crew.
Prost!
Bad Monkey
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Team Chicago: Training Hard
Team Chicago is training hard! We are bringing some QUALITY rookies to the Wiesn and are fired up for the Weekend. Only 7 days until departure...
Here are some pics of local training in Chicago. We are going to have another dress rehearsal tomorrow in full 'fighting gear' for the Fest. Yes, every one of us is flying over to Munich with Lederhosen. More pictures to follow.... looking forward to seeing everyone again and meeting some new members to our prestigious / drunken crew.
Viel Spass!
prost!
Jon Sanchez
aka Bad Monkey
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Cheat Sheet for 2008
Hacker Festzelt - Bavarian Heaven
The following is what you should expect. It is adapted previous year’s cheat sheet, but still is 99% accurate and will give you a general expectation about what to do and when to do it.
Make your way to
Hotel Tryp Paul-Heyse-Strasse 24
Tel: (49) 89 514900 - Fax: (49) 89 51490701 - E-mail: tryp.muenchen@solmelia.com
Bergman, Azevedo, & Baxter go to Hotel Ibis (details sent separately)
and get checked in. If you take the S Bahn from the airport, you take the S1 or S8 train from the airport towards downtown
9/25 Thursday Arrival day Game day shirt: Black Polo
Arrive early and you will be the first to taste the 2008 Oktoberfest beer. This beer is brewed specifically for Oktoberfest and is arguably the best beer in the world. Once you have checked in, I would suggest making your way over to the Wies'n (vee-sen). That is the piece of land on which the Oktoberfest is sitting. Veterans call it the Wies'n, so start calling it that. Examples, "Are you going to the Wies'n tonight?" "Is Ken still passed out at the Wies'n?" "Did Walt get thrown out of the Wies'n again?" You get the picture. I will get there at around noon on Thursday and will be at the Hacker Festzelt tent. In the map below, that is tent number 4. Ask for directions at the front desk how to get there, but I assure you there will be a steady flow of people heading there. Just follow the crowd. If you are following a bunch of totally hammered people, you are going the wrong way. These are the people who are leaving the Wiesn. Turn around! The hotel is only about 5 minute walk to the Wiesn.
There is a main road where all of the tents are located. Hacker Pschorr is between the HB (Hofbrau) and Shottenhamel tent and across from Augustiner Brau. This is where we will hoist a few masses of beer for the next 3 days. Go in the front doors, turn left and head towards the back of the tent down the left hand side.
When you are about halfway (just before the band), look for people in our black travel shirts . We’ll be near the walkway so we should be easy to spot.
We'll stay there pretty much all afternoon and evening and then head for pizza afterward
Friday 9/26 Game Day Shirt White mesh shirt Meet in the Tryp hotel lobby at 8 and we will walk over together. They start serving beer at 10. We do not have reservations for Friday. It is imperitive that you are in the lobby so that we can all sit together on Friday. It is a nightmare saving seats, so meet in the lobby by 8:00 and we will head over to Hacker. We will spend virtually the whole day in Hacker that day. Get to the tents as early as possible, because many of the Germans in
Saturday 9/27 Game day Shirt Yellow T Shirt morning - Get up at your leisure. Today would be a good day to walk around the Wies'n and see what else there is going on. If you can't bear to smell the beer, jump on the train and go to the town center (MARIENPLATZ).
Sunday 9/28 Return home. I suggest you take a vacation day on Monday.
Miscellaneous things:
Clothes: This is very informal. Wear comfortable shorts or pants. Have both available. Normally the weather is nice, so shorts are appropriate. If it is raining and cold, then you could still wear shorts, but you’ll get wet on the walk to the tent. Might want to buy a disposable pancho from Wal Mart for the trip so that you won’t get wet walking to the tent. It is dry inside of course. It will not be cold in the tent. If it is 75 outside, it will feel like 175 inside. Lots of smoke, sweaty people, and spilled beer. Your shoes will get beer spilled all over them. Don’t wear nice shoes. You likely will not need a nice set of clothes, although some adventurous people have gone out to clubs after the O’fest closes at 11pm. Take a look at the various pix that we have sent and you can see how casual the dress is. Here is a listing of the shirts that we will all wear: Thursday: Polo Shirt Friday: White Baseball Jersey Sat: Yellow T-Shirt
You should have your shirts, beads, and shaving kit by now.
Weather: Normally it is 75 or so. However, it could be 50 and raining. Bring a light jacket just in case it is raining and you have to be outside for the 200 meter walk from/to the hotel. Bring a jacket that you don’t care if it gets lost or VERY dirty.
Money; Normally I would expect > $350 US to be enough to pay for beer and food and trains, but you should probably count on $400-$500 because you are going to be in a good mood and want to buy your new German friends a few beers. A taxi to the airport is about $70. If you are going to take taxis and buy lots of beers for your new best friends, then you need to bring lots more money. Beers are about $10 each (per liter). USD will not do you any good there. They do have ATM’s that you can get Euros from or you can get them at the airport or at your bank before departure. They have ATM’s at the airports, throughout the city and at the Wies’n itself.
Beer & Food We will pay for our own beers at the tent. We will take a small collection at the beginning of the day to ensure we have good service from our waiters and also to grease the doormen. Beers are served in liters only and normally cost about 8 Euros (+/- $10 US) Food is <15 style=""> Normally we buy pizzas after the festivities across the street from the Wiesn. This costs another 10 Euros or so.
A good website to keep track of between now and the beginning of Ofest is the official Ofest website: www.oktoberfest.de/en
OUR WEBSITE IS
http://www.ofestforever.blogspot.com/
Our website is the best resource for the trip. It has lots of info. Play around with it and you will see lots of useful info
PRINT THIS OUT AND TAKE IT WITH YOU TO
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Training for the Wiesn is now complete
We have a few pix from the various festivities, I hope you enjoy them. If there are any other training pix, please send 'em in.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A report from the front lines by our uber scout Leppie (AKA Callahan)
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Rusty's Bar is on for June 20!!!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Details about Ofest '08
Friday, February 1, 2008
Ofest '08 Information Sept 25-28
Well, after another successful reunion dinner, it is time to move on to Ofest '08! We had a Glocken good time at the dinner and the DVD that Daryl made was a winner. Let me know if you need a copy of the DVD as i have a few extras. Many people took an extra one for you if you didn't attend, so ask your buddies first if they got one for you and if not, let me know.
If you need to send money for your hotel, tent reservations, shirts, travel bags, etc. Here are the details:
By Check: $975 to Ken Bloom 119 Neal St. Pleasanton, CA 94566
By paypal $1000 (to cover the paypal fees) kbloomrhp@yahoo.com
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Information about the reunion dinner
Host:
Herr Hasselhoff
Location:
Renaissance Club Sport Walnut Crk2805 Jones Rd, Walnut Creek, CA 94597
When:
Thursday, January 31, 7:00PM
Phone:
9255187437
Cost: $40 per person
Time to relive the old memories from Ofest with your buddies. All are invited and invite your firends too. The cost will be $40/person including dinner, beer, music, and the famous Ofest '07 slide show that Daryl (Dee) created from all of our pix. You can pay via paypal (kbloomrhp@yahoo.com) or bring cash to the dinner.We will also begin collecting $900 for Ofest '08. We aren't going to do a deposit and then a final payment. We are just going to collect one payment to reduce the time and effort of being the treasurer. This year's price will include the gratuities for the waiters and the security staff.Please RSVP for the dinner. You don't have to go to Ofest '08 in order to attend the reunion. They are independent activities. This is a good thing to invite your buddies to who may be interested in Ofest '08!!! Great recruiting tool.