191st Oktoberfest opens in Munich: pricier beer fails to deter visitors

The 191st Oktoberfest — the world's largest beer festival — opened in Munich on Saturday. Gates at the Theresienwiese fairground swung open shortly after nine in the morning, but so many people were eager to get in that a genuine crush formed at the entrance.

According to the website of the German newspaper Bild, a queue had already stretched hundreds of metres in front of the main entrance by around seven in the morning. Some of the most impatient visitors even camped out overnight in tents by the gates to guarantee themselves spots in the beer tents. Organisers had to periodically hold back the crowd at the entrance to spread out the flow of visitors and prevent a stampede.

A tradition with two centuries of history

The festival's story began in October 1810, when the Bavarian crown prince Ludwig and his wife, Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, threw a celebration for the kingdom's residents, complete with horse races on a meadow outside Munich, to mark their wedding. The event proved a huge success and gradually grew into an annual October tradition.

Over more than two hundred years, the festival has been cancelled only a handful of times — due to wars, epidemics and other exceptional circumstances. It kept its original name even after its start date was shifted to September for better weather.

Read also: From beer baths to a sauna on a boat: 8 best spa and bathhouse complexes in Prague

Source: novinky.cz