Top five beer festivals in Europe

The big daddy of beer festivals — Germany’s Oktoberfest — is almost upon us. But that’s only one of the beer festivals worth visiting in Europe over the next year.

Some 6 million people descend on Munich, Germany, each year to attend the wildly popular Oktoberfest, where revelers pack three dozen tents, a stein in one hand and a sausage in the other. The good news for families is that children are allowed in the tents, although those under the age of 6 must leave at 8 p.m. One drawback: Beer tents have been exempted from tough national smoking bans. This year the event takes place from Sept. 20 to Oct. 5. In 2009, it will run from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4. You can go to the official Web site at www.oktoberfest.de/en for more information and for contact details for booking seats at the individual tents.

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JAN PITMAN / 2002 photo

A waitress carries mugs of beer during Oktoberfest in Munich, Bavaria.

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Probably the next biggest beer festival in Germany — and one growing in popularity — is the Cannstatt Beer Festival in Stuttgart. THe event runs from Sept. 27 to Oct. 12 this year, and is scheduled for Sept. 26 to Oct. 11 next year. Not only does this event offer lots of beer and food in the traditional decked-out beer tents, but it also boasts lots of rides for visitors of all ages — haunted houses, water rides and the largest transportable Ferris wheel in the world. For more information go to www.stuttgart-tourist.de/ENG/leisure/volksfest.htm or www.cannstatter-volksfestverein.de/

A massive European Beer Festival will be held in the gorgeous capital of Copenhagen, Denmark, at the Danish brewery Carlsberg’s old property. (The brewery is moving to Jutland.) Some 20,000 guests are expected to attend the event from Sept. 12 to 14, and will have the chance to taste more than 1,000 different beers. While most beer festivals tend to accentuate their own national products, Denmark’s beer festival provides a platform for beers from all across Europe. For more information go to www.beerfestival.dk.

You’ve just missed the Great British Beer Festival. But if you fancy a trip to London next summer, check out the festival, generally held in early August at the cavernous Earl’s Court exhibition center in West London. Sponsored by the Campaign for Real Ale — a huge independent body that campaigns for real ale and real pubs — the event attracted more than 65,000 people this year, sniffing and sipping their way through 750 different brews including more than 450 British real ales. For more information go to www.camra.org.uk.

For something a bit more offbeat, travel to the lovely old city of Tallinn, Estonia, next summer, where the largest beer festival in the Baltics — the annual Ollesummer Festival — will take place July 8 to 12, 2009. Besides copious amounts of beer, there is also an amazing array of live entertainment including Estonian national music, rock, jazz, reggae and hip-hop. Bands and musicians perform on a number of different stages, and there is also a separate Youth Zone with performances by Estonian youth bands and a skate park. For more information go to www.ollesummer.ee/eng.

And for those of you seeking to pinch pennies, there’s always the Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg, Texas coming up Oct. 3, 4, and 5. www.oktoberfestfredericksburgtexas.com/.