by Tang Zhiqiang
MUNICH, Germany, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) — Hundreds of thousands beer-drinkers worldwide have gathered here on a rainy Saturday as Munich Mayer Christian Ude tapped the first barrel of beer to mark the opening of the Oktoberfest, the world’largest beer festival.
Nearly 7 million people are expected to enjoy the beer at the 179th edition of the Oktoberfest beer festival for the coming 16 days at the event’s officIal site called Theresienwiese.
As what tradition dictates, the mayor would always be the first to taste the first 1-liter “Steinkrug” of beer before he leads a parade through the city center.
“I’ve heard about it for many years, so I came here this year and want to see what it looks like,” said Omar, a young tourist from Mexico, standing with a friend in one of the 14 beer tents, holding beer mug and swinging to the oompah music.
For many people, Omar was lucky. Though with a total seating capacity of more than 104,000 guests, the 14 tents were overfilled shortly after the opening. Latecomers without reservation of a table had to wait in rain for hours to get inside.
“You have to book a table at least half a year earlier,” said Thomas, a 38-year-old Municher who had attended the festival for the past 25 years.
“It’s the most important festival for people here and has a history of over 200 years,” he said proudly. “Every year, more people from around the world come. More people are blocked outside the tent.”
Waiters in lederhosen and waitresses in dirndles strove their way through crowds of people in the same costumes, holding beer mugs, pretzels, roasted chickens, and other Bavarian delicacies.
Last year, some 6.9 million guests visited the festival, consumed 7.9 million liters of beer with 522,821 roasted chickens, 124,520 pairs of pork’s sausages, 69,903 pig’s knuckles and 118 whole oxen.
With a slight price increase, Oktoberfest beer brewed by Munich’s six major breweries this year is served with price 9.10-9.50 euros (11.8-12.3 U.S. dollars) per one-liter-mug. Alcohol-free beer is also available at the same price.
The festival has arranged toilets of around 1,136 “seats” and 880 meters of “standing spaces.”
In addition to beer and sausages, the festival also provides entertainments including 130 rides, displays and sideshows, among which flea circus, ghost train, giant wheel, and many other sideshows have their origin in the 19th century.
Municipal booths and peddlers along the fairground and in the tents sell almost everything from delicatessen to sweets, tobaccos, fruit and souvenirs.
The history of Oktoberfest could be traced back to 1810, when Bavarian Prince Ludwig, who later became King Ludwig I of Bavaria, married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen.
Since then, people celebrated the anniversary of their marriage in midst of the Theresienwiese, which was named after Princess Therese.
For once in a while, the festival started and ended in October, but since 1872, it has been moved to start in September for better weather.
During its 202 years of history, Oktoberfest was canceled 24 times for different reasons including wars, the outbreak of cholera in 1854 and 1873, and the country’s rampant inflation in the 1920s.