The biggest and the grandest beer festival in Germany is the Oktoberfest, where large crowds gather to enjoy the festive atmosphere with lots of fun and lots of food and beverage! For the 15th consecutive year Hilton Colombo will be organizing Oktoberfest which has always been a huge success. The hotel will "rock" the city of Colombo with a lot of fanfare from 23rd October to 1st November 2008 at the Sports Club car park.

Oktoberfest was originally started in Munich as a royal wedding on October 12, 1811. The famous beer tents were introduced in 1896 and have now become the main focus of the festival. The German beer festival is usually scheduled for only two weeks ending in the first weekend of October. 30% of the annual production of Munich's breweries is consumed in these few days!"

Hilton Colombo being the trend setter started the event in Sri Lanka for the first time in 1993 with a local jazz band. Today, it is held at the Sports Club car park with a huge marquee constructed by Three Coins exclusively for this event, which can accommodate upto 400 people. "Authentic ingredients are used for German brews by Three Coins and traditional German cuisine using authentic ingredients can also be savoured like Bratwurst sausages, large garlic sausages" said the hotel's Marketing Communications Manager.

The traditional authentic, Bavarian recipes used for this event have been provided by our sister hotels in Munich to Keells Food Products." added Executive Chef Rohan Fernandopulle. The Bavarian band will be flown in by Emirates and the band is of course the main attraction of the event. "Traditional Bavarian bands are not available early October due to the beer fest in Germany, hence the hotel celebrate this event at the end of October. In addition to the above, interesting traditional Oktoberfest games such as power hammer, wrestling, dancing on tables are planned for the promotion. " added De Silva.

Oktobefest is brought to you by Hilton Colombo together with their partners Three Coins, Keells, Coca Cola, Nations trust Bank and Emirates, For reservations, please call the Food and Beverage Office on 2492 492 ext: 2012.