Oktoberfest is called “Oktoberfest” because the original festival in Munich was held in October to mark a royal wedding and yearly celebrations that followed.

Quick Scoop

  • The name comes from early “October festivals” celebrating a Bavarian royal wedding in 1810.
  • The first events and horse races took place in October, so people started calling them October festivals, i.e., Oktoberfest.
  • Over time, the festival was kept as an annual October celebration and the name stuck, even as dates later shifted into September for better weather.

A tiny bit of story

In 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (later King Ludwig I) married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, and Munich’s citizens were invited to celebrate on fields outside the city walls. Those fields were soon named Theresienwiese (“Therese’s Meadow”), and the big public party with races and feasting became so popular that it was repeated each year as an October festival. Because it was tied to October dates and anniversaries, people naturally referred to the whole thing as Oktoberfest, and the term became the official name over time.

In short: it’s called Oktoberfest because it began as royal October celebrations in Munich, and the historical name stayed even after the party was moved earlier into September for nicer weather.

TL;DR: It’s called Oktoberfest since the original festival was held in October for a Bavarian royal wedding, and the historical October-based name stuck even though most of it now happens in September.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.