Fuengirola (Málaga) - mini Oktoberfest at the Sohail castle

The Sohail castle is a XII century almoravid fortress located in the southern andalusian city of Fuengirola, not too far from Málaga. The castle was built on top of a hill to the south of the city and it overlooks the sea, beautifully. In 2008 an initiative was put in place by the city council in order to allow the setting-up for a week of a little Oktoberfest-fair inside the castle. If you put it this way, you may even see this experience as the accomplishment of a delicious and foolishly anacronic kind of dream: assisting to a beer-fest inside a true medieval castle of arabic origins, located in the Costa del Sol, at the very south of the Spanish region of Andalucía -a castle where for seven days you could enjoy every August some of the best german and belgian beers there are while you enjoy the taste of true german sausages, Sauerkraut and beef burgers: savage!

Fuengirola

Fuengirola is a very charming city in the Costa del Sol, not even a thirty-minute car drive away from Málaga, a city it is also connected to through the Cercanías, a short-distance train for the affordable price of 2 euros/journey. I will be writing more on Fuengirola in the next few days, as it is a place I know quite well and I believe has so much to offer you, besides its marvelous beaches, nightclubs, bars and Chiringuitos (it is highly cosmopolitan, you will easily encounter lots of English, German, Dutch and Scandinavian tourists, if you are searching for a more international situation). But today I wanted to focus all of my efforts on highlighting one single aspect of the city that you could exploit every August, at the beginning of the month: the Sohail Castle Oktoberfest festival.

Mini Oktoberfest in the Costa del Sol

The Sohail-Castle Oktoberfest is the setting up of a medieval-like fair inside a XII-century almoravid castle (how awesome, right?). The mini-Oktoberfest has taken place every year in the southern coastal city of Fuengirola (Spain), during the first half of August, since 2008. The fair has a diverse variety of gastronomy to offer all of its visitants, and I believe it should satisfy all tastes: cocktails as well as german and belgian beers (Paulaner, Grimbergen) await for you in maritime quantities, while at the other table you will have a selection of german sausages, fries, burgers and Sauerkraut to kill your night-time hunger.

It is a party not only for the older and alcoholic ones, I have witnessed every year families bringing their children to enjoy the food and the great ambience of the party (who leave home at a decent familiar time of course). The mini-Oktoberfest is also animated by great artists until 2 a.m.: DJs, awesome animation bands playing all-time classics, all-night-long german Oktoberfest chanting takes also place while drinking-contests are organized on stage asking for brave volunteers to appear from among the crowd. People are lovely and in a party mood.

What to do before -or after the Fuengirola Oktoberfest

If you get to Fuengirola by day time, let me also tell you that, while you wait for the night and the Oktoberfest to begin, you may enjoy the beach, right next to the castle, or enjoy the facilities also at the bottom of the hill, with basketball courts, ping-pong tables, pedal-boats and even an awesome 50 metre long zip line that will make you cross the Fuengirola river from above.