We saw Oktoberfest advertised on a billboard and went to check it out Saturday night (though Sunday is a bigger drinking night, it wasn't a good night for us). The 'fest was fairly far north and took us a while to get there (compounded by traffic and stops at two gas stations. We don't know why the first gas station was rejected, but our auto driver was NOT happy with the attendant).
Oktoberfest itself was similar to music/outdoor festivals at home, but it was on a smaller scale. You had to buy tickets to get beer, they had hippie jewelry and t-shirts for sale, and we ate fried food. The only thing missing: no funnel cake, elephant ears, or local fried sweets. The beer variety was amazing: you could have Kingfisher draught, Kingfisher in 350 mL cans, or Kingfisher in 500 mL tallboy cans-- and if you had enough people--you could get the Kingfisher mini-keg for 750 Rs.
The battle of the bands was at times good, though the band had clear favorites (i.e. the James Brown was atrocious, but the Oasis cover was much tighter:
Miss D, I'm pretty sure your skills are in high demand here). Liz and I walked around, drank Kingfisher, introduced ourselves to a few white people--including a nice young man from Stuttgart--and saw a lot of really drunk, really stoned, and really enthused Indian men dance around. Some were nice and were friendly-chatting; some were kinda creepy. It was your standard music fest experience, except that a man I would officially call an old dude wanted to buy me a drink.
Here we are enjoying The Good Times (except that I don't like Kingfisher):
We danced some, too. I found that a nice elbow-rave was enough to keep people at a distance. Our fun had to end early for practical reasons. Drunk, usually-repressed young men start getting unruly when the party ends, and we wanted to make sure we got an auto before people got grabby or shove-y.
Getting an auto at 11:45 was annoying and we had some hilarity ensue, but we made it home for under 200 Rs.
