Villa General Belgrano is a small town in Argentina, almost 12,000 kilometers away from Munich, and it has its own Oktoberfest. Is it actually German, or is it just a costume party?
I went to a German school for 14 years. I lived in Germany and I’ve been to the original Oktoberfest, so I took six friends to find that out. I found five things, and the last one is something Munich should actually copy.
Hi, I’m Ivan. I spent six years abroad, four in Dublin and two in Berlin, and I came back to Argentina in February this year. Oktoberfest is such a cool tradition, and I learned to love it living and working in Germany, because I had gotten into it while I was living and working in Dublin as well. So I went to this one with German eyes, but also Argentinian eyes.
Getting there
Villa General Belgrano runs its Oktoberfest over two long weekends in October, and we picked the one, of course, with the Monday holiday, so nobody had to ask for a day off.
Our flight was at 5:30 a.m., which I hated, but I got to the airport around 3 a.m., just because I like to be early, and on a long weekend at 3 in the morning, Aeroparque looked like a nightclub, because it sits right next to nightclubs.
An hour and ten minutes later we landed in Córdoba, and a van took us from the airport to the hotel, more or less 15 kilometers from the town.
There was one rule from day one: every cost was split by seven, mine included, of course. Per person, the hotel came to around $260 for the two nights, and the festival ticket to around $65.
And on Saturday we didn’t even leave the hotel. According to my photos, thanks to Apple technology, I never went further than 600 meters. We had horses, archery, a spa and a lake.
The money
The boring part of a group trip is always the money. Who paid what, who still owes and when, so I didn’t do that by hand. I set up a small AI system, and since everyone says “I used AI” and that kind of tells you nothing, I’m going to tell you exactly what it did.
It kept a ledger. Imagine one file with every cost and payment, with the rule written at the top: split by seven, mine included. Even when one friend dropped out on September 1st, it recalculated everyone’s share that same moment.
In August, it compared the options. Driving came to about 500,000 pesos, flying to 700,000.
On check-in day I paid the other half of the hotel, around $900, and sent it a photo of the receipt. It read it, marked it as paid and updated everyone’s cost. It even drafted the messages to the group and the calendar invites, with everything included.
If you want to see how that works, I’m also going to leave you the link: the small AI system I set up for the trip.
The costume
Now the costume part of the question, because we came in costume. The invitation had one line nobody could skip: the lederhosen is not optional.
Mine have been in my closet for years now, and luckily one of my other friends also got his in Vienna, so we were at least two fully dressed. Imagine leather shorts, long socks, a vest, a pocket square, and boots that I picked for the mud and rain. Not necessarily the authentic look, but as you’ll see, I think I made the right call.
My friends later got these Oktoberfest-like Tyrolean sashes. We tried to get the hats, we didn’t see them. But I think that made it so everyone had something to party with. And the cheering glasses, of course.
One: the town is actually real
You walk under an arch that says Fiesta Nacional de la Cerveza, which literally translates to the National Beer Festival. This was the 63rd edition, so it’s nothing new. It’s as old as my dad. I’m not calling you old, Dad, but it’s 63 years old.
There’s a red tram doing a village tour, which I thought was so cute. Then there’s brick towers and a house called Dick Haus. If you speak German, you know what it means. If you speak English, it’s a funny pun.
There’s a reason it looks like this. I did the research, and the town was founded in the early 30s by German-speaking settlers, so that’s where the German influence comes from. In the 1940s, some sailors from the Graf Spee ended up here. The funny thing is that’s the German warship that was sunk on purpose off Montevideo, and some of them actually never left.
In the early 40s, apparently an Argentinian flag got burned in the town, three of those sailors were blamed, and it was never actually proven, and the town had to get a new name, and they chose Villa General Belgrano, after Manuel Belgrano. So this very German town carries the name of the man who designed our flag.
Two: the food
At six in the evening, still in lederhosen, we sat down to Spätzle with goulash and a beer. Spätzle, for those who don’t know, are egg noodles scraped straight into boiling water. It’s the plate you eat at Oktoberfest or in Germany in winter, and here at Oktoberfest too, although it’s spring.
And of course we toasted the German way, which is like you look each other very intensely in the eyes, every single time, because otherwise it’s like bad luck or bad sex or both. I don’t remember. I just do it. Traditions.
But I’ll be honest, I think the food is better in Munich, just because it’s more traditional. And I think there’s a better offering and variety than what I saw, at least in Córdoba.
Three: the beer
A liter here costs less than in Munich, which I don’t think is a surprise to anyone. In Munich, one liter costs around 15 euros, at least from what I read this year, and nobody orders just one. Here, a liter at the festival was 16,000 pesos, around $10.
The surprise is that, honestly, for an Oktoberfest, my friends and I didn’t drink that much beer. At one point I was standing at the bar without my glass, like, how come I don’t have my glass with me? At an Oktoberfest. Crazy.
I even found someone in the comments of an old video about this festival who wrote: “I am German, this party is very German, but I don’t know about the beer.” And I kind of get it, because for me Munich has the better beer. If you’ve been to Munich, you know the tents like Paulaner and Franziskaner, and the Weissbier, which comes in that long, thin glass, is my favorite one. And that’s what I think makes it very iconic, although everyone knows the Maß and the big beers are the familiar ones. But definitely Córdoba has the better price.
Four: the night
When the sun goes down, it turns into something you’ll recognize from Munich: wooden mugs, long tables and everyone singing Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit, the same song you hear in every tent at the Wiesn.
It got down to seven degrees and it rained, so the night ended in the most Argentinian way possible, eating burgers and fries under the rain. Remember the boots? That’s why. I think I made the right decision.
At night, Munich is still Munich. It’s bigger, it’s louder, and it lasts 16 days.
Five: the stage
This is where I think Argentina beats Munich. Around midnight, a host goes up on stage and starts introducing people country by country and region by region. We saw a pipe band in kilts, we saw Ukrainian dances, we saw an Austrian folk dance group, couples spinning in lederhosen and red skirts under an Austrian flag. Honorable mention: we saw our dear friend Thomi and his sister and dad dancing up there.
Munich’s Oktoberfest is clearly a Bavarian party, which I love, and this one felt like a party for every family that came to Argentina from somewhere else. I was that foreigner for six years in Dublin and Berlin, so watching that from the crowd hit me. Argentina still keeps people with their own traditions, but in a way they feel integrated, because they’re Argentinians that live through all those values, in this case German and Austrian values.
If you go
Book early. We booked six weeks before, and the hotel wanted 50% upfront, non-refundable.
And trust me, I spent a lot of time checking options, because we planned to do a cabin, a cabaña, that looked much cheaper in our eyes and ended up more expensive, with fewer bedrooms. So take your time. In our case we sacrificed the location, but we had peace and much better amenities, with the spa, the horses and everything I mentioned.
If you can make it, go on the holiday weekend, bring some cash and bring something warm for the night. And in my opinion, wear the lederhosen.
I wrote down every cost, the hotel and what I would change: my Oktoberfest field notes.
So, is it actually German?
Not the way Munich is, because Munich has the better food, the better beer and the bigger night overall. But it’s kind of cool to see that the tradition is maintained here too, and there’s a nice scene happening. In my opinion, even too much of a party: I didn’t expect so many people partying on the streets afterwards.
And is it just a costume party? We were the ones in costume. What happened on that stage was real. There weren’t as many people dressed up as in Munich, but you could tell the people who were dressed were really proud of their nationality and their heritage.
So Córdoba cost a fraction of Munich, and the stage is better. I think that’s the part Munich should copy, and it’s the reason I would actually go back.
Is there any other Oktoberfest in Argentina, or anywhere else, that I should visit? I don’t know. Tell me in the comments.
Thank you so much, human, for spending the time with me.
Until next week, where I’ll welcome you back to my universe,
Ivan
P.S. I don’t drink alcohol anymore. So if I was able to have a good time with two beers, and you’re not a drinker, what’s the excuse?
P.P.S. The video: