Wildest Oktoberfest snaps as iconic booze competition returns and ‘beer flows like golden oil’
Beer lovers toasted the start of the 191st Oktoberfest on Saturday. The event, held annually outside Munich in Germany, sees millions of folk down steins of beer.
Many also don traditional Bavarian costume of lederhosen or dirndl dresses, with wearers including top celebs such as reality TV star Kim Kardashian. Here James Moore reveals all you need to know about Oktoberfest in Zahlen*.
*That’s, er, Oktoberfest by numbers. Danke.
1…the first keg of beer is “tapped” by the mayor to open the festival. He shouts: “O’zapft is!” – Bavarian for “It is tapped!”
2.5…kilos. The approximate weight of a filled one-litre glass beer mug.
4…seconds. Taps in the tents produce 15 pours per minute. Beer flows in pipes at 25cm a second.
5…seconds. How fast some of the drinkers have been logged chugging a stein.
The average litre of beer costs £5.55 at the event(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
13…pounds and fifty – five pence. What the average litre of beer will cost you at the event.
16…days. How long the festival will last this year.
24…number of times it has been cancelled thanks to wars and the Covid pandemic.
29…the record number of one litre steins successfully carried by waiter Oliver Strumpfel in 2017.
30…pounds. The cost of the traditional commemorative Oktoberfest mug.
Nice jugs(Image: Getty Images)
100…the number of fairground rides and shooting galleries.
250…the number of pairs of specs, among 4,500 lost items. Whips and gnomes have featured too.
764…tons. The amount of waste left behind after the event.
1300…number of people employed at Oktoberfest.
1400…how many toilet cubicles are on hand for all those full bladders.
The festival returned this weekend(Image: Getty Images)
1516…date of German Purity Law. Bavarian lager must be made from only water, hops and barley.
1810…year Oktoberfest debuted, held to honour the wedding of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese.
1892…the first year that glass mugs were introduced.
1896…year physicist Albert Einstein helped install electricity to one of the beer tents.
9000…the number of people who take part in the opening parade.
10,000…the number of people the largest tent at the festival can hold. There are 14 massive ones.
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian at Oktoberfest 2010(Image: Getty Images)
12,000… the number of people that the largest tent in the event’s history accommodated, in 1913.
50,000…the number of people that will attend London’s own Oktoberfest this year.
95,000…litres of wine and 42,000 litres of bubbly are knocked back along with the beer.
116,000…number of beer mugs intercepted by security that people try to smuggle out.
Dressing up is the order of the day(Image: Getty Images)
120,000…capacity for seating of drinkers at the festival.
280,000…the number of sausages revellers will eat their way through…along with 127 oxen.
420,000…square metres. Size of the Theresienwiese festival site. Roughly 10 Wembleys.
6.5million…the number of visitors from over 65 countries expected during the festival.
7.5million…litres of beer are drunk, enough to fill three Olympic-size swimming pools
