Doktoberfest at Dock X, Canada Water

As a city, we have fully embraced Oktoberfest in recent years, with multiple venues putting up bunting, pouring giant steins of beer and rustling up bratwurst-heavy feasts. This year, a new event is in town, and it’s putting in a bid to be the best Oktoberfest celebration in London. It’s called Doktoberfest and it’s taking place in a converted riverside warehouse, Dock X, in Canada Water. Here, festival-goers will find a mini-Munich, complete with live music, dancing, circus acts and a steady flow of authentic golden brews.

Step inside the 19th-century-style bierkeller and pull up a pew at one of the many traditional benches (enough to seat 1,500 guests, we’re told). Here, beneath a Bavarian blue-and-white-draped canopy ceiling, a high-spirited Oktoberfest unravels. Guests can stamp their feet to oompah bands, while staff dressed in traditional dirndl and lederhosen patrol the hall, ensuring that steins remain filled with the good stuff. For the hungry, there's a host of stalls dishing up steaming plates of hearty Bavarian dishes.

If all this sounds a bit too traditional for your liking, worry not: you can enjoy an entirely different experience at Doktoberfest, too: one in which you swap beer for champagne and cocktails; traditional Bavarian cuisine for vegan, halal and gluten-free alternatives; and oompah bands for DJ sets and pop-fuelled sing-alongs. You can also book tickets to see risqué cabaret artists and aerial gymnasts perform daring routines, or come along for a one-off themed event, such as the Halloween Oktoberfest on 31 October, the Day of the Dead Oktoberfest on 2 November, or the LGBTQ+ Pink Oktoberfest on 12 October.

Prost (cheers) to that!

Gold Culture Whisper members can redeem a free pair of tickets to Doktoberfest on Thursday 10 October, 5PM - 11PM