On September 21, the 180th Oktoberfest beer festival started in Munich. According to tradition, at exactly 12 o’clock accompanied by 12 shots into the sky, the Mayor of Munich personally hammered a tap into a barrel of beer, thus opening the festival. The Bavarian Festival attracts up to 6 million guests from around the globe each year, who drink, eat and party on a scale that boggles the mind. Beer lovers have the opportunity to sample the «Oktoberfestbeer» brewed by Munich brewers in accordance with the city’s beer purity law of 1487 and exclusively for the occasion.
This good tradition began more than two centuries ago — in 1810, the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghaus took place in Munich (the meadow where the festival is still held today bears her name). The celebration, to which all the town’s residents were invited without exception, was concluded by horse races, which it was decided to repeat a year later. Later, a farmer’s fair was added to the event, followed by folk festivities with carousel rides and the first beer stalls. Finally, in 1819, the Munich city councilors decided to celebrate Oktoberfest every year. Huge marquees were erected on the Theresienwiese Meadow (the largest was designed for 10,000 seats). Numerous rides from traditional carousels and Ferris wheel to super modern constructions, Bavarian sweets fair, souvenir sales — entertainment at the festival can be found for every taste, not counting the «beer drinking» itself. Every year about 5 million liters of beer are drunk at the festival, more than 500 thousand chickens and a large number of bulls and piglets are used for snacks.
Munich hotels during the festival collect unprecedented revenue, because, despite the increased prices, they are filled to capacity. The Guinness Book of Records lists Oktoberfest as the world’s most massive festival. At this time in Bavaria usually wonderful weather — sunny, the air warms up to 30 degrees. The festive atmosphere reigns throughout the city. People in Bavarian folk costumes, laughter, music, in a word — in a word — the whole positive. The festival will continue till October 6.