As seen on social media: people drinking beer out of footwear
Man, some people are really stupid. They drink beer from shoes and boots at the Munich Oktoberfest – should you need proof. How disgusting.
Alas, the new Oktoberfest ritual isn’t new, it’s only gone plebeian. The first to indulge in it were some decadent Russian noblemen at the end of the nineteenth century, who drank champagne out of ballerinas’ slippers in tribute to their talent at the end of a show.
The fashion then moved to Paris’ brothels in the early twentieth century, where johns thus paid homage to the ladies of the night.
This most decadent of champagne rituals was only reawakened in 2009 by the House of Piper-Heidsieck, when it partnered with master shoe maker Christian Louboutin to create a fetish for the well-heeled. It consisted of a six-inch crystal stiletto champagne flute, sporting Mr Louboutin’s iconic red soles of seduction. The flute came with a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck Brut and sold at the sublime price of EUR 350.
Sadly, the great unwashed at the Oktoberfest made do with smelly boots, pouring EUR 10.20 worth of beer (1 litre) into them. Beer may be a democratic leveller, but did we really need this sort of proof?
At the 2015 Oktoberfest, which ended on 4 October 2015, visitors cosumed 7.3 million litres of beer, down from 7.7 million litres in 2014. Visitor numbers dropped too: 5.9 million people compared with 6.3 million last year.
