Tollwood Winter Festival - Munich

This is the biggest of Munich's Christmas markets. Tollwood is music and arts festival held twice a year in Munich. The Winter festival runs for the entire month of December on Theresienwiese, the site of the Oktoberfest. There are hundreds and hundreds of little stalls selling all manner of stuff like magic healing crystals and tie-dye henna bedthrows. There are also 10 giant tents which house yet more stalls, a food plaza, and live music and circus venues. The festival will climax on New Year's Eve with various special shows, concerts, and fireworks.



There are 10 tents at Tollwood this year.

The 10 large tents at Tollwood are:

Marché, Mercato, and Bazar - 3 shopping tents full of stalls selling arts and crafts and speciality 'alternative' goods that you usually can't buy in Munich. Open 2pm to midnight.

Food Plaza - needs no explanation. Lots of health food is usually available.

Tief-im-Wald Bar - live music every night, no tickets or entry fee. This is my personal favourite. Just show up, grab a seat, and enjoy what ever show happens to be on.

Palast der Morgenröte - various concerts and performances with an Asian flavour. Performers from China, Korea, and Australia. The show varies each evening but always begins at 6.30pm. Ticket prices vary according to show.

Amadeon - this tent houses one show only, the "Gauklersonate". The music of Mozart performed with modern instruments and featuring live dancing and acrobatics. Entry €66 including 4 course dinner, €26,50 without the dinner. Starts at 6pm.

Theaterzelt - houses two shows. The first is "Ibericus". A comedy telling the story of a muscian who travels from Spain to ancient Rome in search of fame and fortune. On the way he is robbed by pirates, sold into slavery, works with the Roman legionares, and falls in love. Show runs 30.Nov to 11.Dec. Starts at 7.30pm and entry is €18.

The second theatre show is Caveman. Under the tagline "You gather, I hunt" this is a comedy which explores the relationship between man and woman. Caveman was written by the American Rob Becker and is the most successful solo performance in the history of Broadway. Runs 13th to 30th December.

Puppentheater - kids shows every day, entry €8.

Wörtersee - book readings every evening.

Here's a map of the grounds (click for the larger version)...



For more details see: www.tollwood.de

Note that there is also a Summer Tollwood Festival which takes place at the Olympia Park.

Here are a few photos from the 2003 Winter festival:

I might sound stupid but looking at the webcam of Theresienwiese webcam there's not a lot going on there, where's Tollwood gone! I assume the camera is pointing the wrong way?

Was there yesterday... definitely not a Christmas market. Mostly "New Age" crapola, I didn't see much in the way of interesting crafts to buy. The food choices are excellent, though.