At This Year's Oktoberfest, a Big Security First

Germany's Oktoberfest is open. Mayor Dieter Reiter officially started Oktoberfest at noon local time on Saturday when he inserted the tap into the first beer keg, signaling the 189th start of the festival. Thousands of beer lovers celebrated at the Munich fairground as the first to clink their mugs during the world's largest folk festival, per the AP. Servers immediately began ferrying trays—each carrying up to eight glass mugs—to tables. Revelers started clinking their mugs and taking deep gulps of beer in the stuffy heat of the tent. The celebration runs through Oct. 6 in 18 large tents covering the Theresienwiese fairground.

• The numbers: Some 6 million visitors are expected over the festival's 16 days—up to 600,000 each day—and can expect to shell out between $15 and $17 or so for a 33-ounce mug of beer. This year's prices are roughly 3.87% more than in 2023. The event was skipped in 2020 and 2021 as authorities grappled with COVID-19, but it returned in 2022.

• History: The first Oktoberfest was held on Oct. 17, 1810, to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Therese of Saxony. The venue, a meadow on the edge of Munich at the time, was called Theresienwiese to honor the bride. While that name remains, the start date has moved up to September, when the temperatures in Bavaria are usually warmer.
• Safety precautions: This year's festival includes stepped-up security in the wake of a deadly knife attack in Solingen, a city more than 300 miles northwest of Munich. The violence on Aug. 23 left three people dead and eight more wounded, and the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, without citing evidence. As a result, organizers added metal detectors to the security lineup for the first time in Oktoberfest's history, but they said there were no concrete threats.
• Fans: Mikael Caselitz, 24, was born and raised in Munich and has attended Oktoberfest for years. He said everyone should travel to Munich for the festival at least once in their lives. "It can get really crowded and disgusting when people puke on the side of the road," he joked, "but overall it's a really fun experience."

(More Oktoberfest stories.)