Drinkers raise a cheer as Oktoberfest opens

A cool beer bubbles out of the pump

MUNICH, Germany -- Thousands of globe-trotting drinkers have arrived at the Oktoberfest beer festival this year because the weak euro means they will get more ale to the dollar, pound or franc.

The final total could be as high as seven million, officials say.

The beer lovers cheered as Munich's mayor cracked open the first keg at the start of the 167th annual Oktoberfest, the world's biggest beer festival.

GALLERY

Beery images of the Oktoberfest

Mayor Christian Ude, wearing Bavarian leather shorts, or lederhosen, tapped the first 200-litre keg at noon with a hammer and shouted "O'zapft is" -- the keg is tapped.

Ude and Bavarian premier Edmund Stoiber then raised their one-litre glasses in a toast to a peaceful Oktoberfest.

The beer travelled to the festival on horse-drawn carts from each of the local breweries taking part in the festival, driven by brewers dressed in traditional Bavarian garb.

This year beer fans will have an extra two days in which to quaff Bavaria's famed brews as the festival will run two days longer than usual at 18 days, to end on October 3 when Germany celebrates 10 years since reunification with a public holiday.

The price of the beer is closely watched, and this year it will cost between 11.20 marks ($4.95) and 12.60 marks ($5.56) per litre -- a rise of seven percent from a year ago even though the German inflation rate has been less than two percent.

Organisers point out that, in exchange for the price rise, toilets this year are free.

Organisers are confident that the longer run and the euro's weakness against the dollar, British pound and Japanese yen will lift attendance above seven million and possibly above the 7.1 million record set in 1985.

"We could well set a record this year," Gabriele Papke, a spokeswoman for Munich's tourist office, said last week. "A lot will depend on whether we have good weather. We expect lots of Americans because of the favourable dollar rate."

The dollar has pushed the euro to successive lows since it was launched 20 months ago while the German mark -- still used in everyday life -- has surged to a 14-year peak of about 2.26 to the dollar.

Last year 6.5 million visitors from around the world drank a record 5.8 million litres (1.28 million gallons) of beer at the two-week orgy of beer drinking, packing the city of 1.8 million and leaving behind revenues of 1.4 billion marks ($650 million).

About 10 percent of the visitors come from abroad, with Australians, Americans, Italians, Japanese and British filling 14 cavernous beer tents as big as football fields that hold up to 10,000 people, many of whom dance on the tables to Bavarian oom-pah brass bands.

The annual tribute to Bavaria's favourite beverage traces its roots to 1810 when it was first held to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princes Therese of Saxony-Hildenburghausen.

Local rules stipulate that only beer brewed in Munich can be sold, a requirement that enrages Prinz Luitpold, a relative of the old Bavarian royal house, whose palace brewery is outside the Bavarian capital city's limits.

"Oktoberfest is just a great big rip-off for American tourists," the prince told Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper. He has tried for 22 years to obtain a licence to sell his brew at Oktoberfest.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Homebrewing List of Beers

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