How do you find somewhere with beer? Ryan and Ange Whipp say follow the lederhosen.
Mrs Whipp said they were making the most of the opportunity to wear the Oktoberfest outfits, because wearing them in central city pubs tended to raise eyebrows.
"We’ve been to Munich and other parts of Germany and drunk a lot of beer, but we’ve never been to an Oktoberfest.
Dunedin chef Casey Henry said he had quite a sensitive palate for food and beer, and was at the festival to help expand it.
"There’s so many more options to try here. You’d have to go to so many different bars to try what’s here in one place.
Festival director Jason Schroeder said there were 65 stalls representing 85 breweries and distilleries, from Auckland to Invercargill, and another 6500 people were expected to visit the festival today.
He said the event was very successful, with only a handful of tickets left over for yesterday’s "innings", and today’s innings was sold out.
"It feels like it’s been a really long time since the last festival in 2020.
"We had three goes at holding it last year and we just couldn’t pull it off because of Covid, so to have 12,500 people coming through is really amazing.
He said it was great for the micro-breweries around the country as well.
"For some of them, this is really their only big outing for the year.
Mr Schroeder said he organised craft beer and food festivals in Auckland and Napier as well, and given the success of the events, he was fermenting the idea of expanding them to other regions.
"We’ve got three at the moment and that’s enough, but as those grow and if the population grows, then yeah, absolutely, if other regions are interested in [hosting a festival], then sure."
