Great starting-weekend for the Oktoberfest

With the traditional tapping-ritual, the Oktoberfest has been opened on saturday.

As usual, Christian Ude, mayor of the city of Munich, had the honour of declaring the Oktoberfest open. With two strikes he tapped the first barell of Oktoberfest beer at the Schottenhamel beer tent and let let the world know "O'zapft is!" - meaning that the barell has been successfully tapped - and wished everybody a peacefull Oktoberfest.

Despite the rather wet weather on saturday, the first weekend was te xpeted sucess: Approximately 850.000 guests from Munich, Bavaria, the rest of Germany and from all over the world came to visit the 179th Oktoberfest on the opening weekend. About one million liters of beer and about nine oxen have already been sold.

A big atraction for many visitors were the two parades, traditionally held during the opening weekend: On saturday the breweries and beer tent proprietors paraded throught the streets of Munich on their way to the Oktoberfest, followed on sunday by the very popular parade with brass bands, traditional costumes and horse carriages.


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