Oktoberfest Munich 2012
From Sept. 22 - Oct. 7, 2012
How do you get about 7 million people to drink 7.5 million liters of beer in 16 days? In Munich, it's not a problem. You just lock them up in huge tents with the right brass and party music and wait to see what happens! Only time will tell whether the 179th Wiesn, as Munich natives affectionately call it, will top the visitor record of 1985 or the beer consumption record of 2011.
In addition to visitors from all parts of Germany, party animals from around the world arrive here, to experience this lunacy "live" at least once in a lifetime. Italians, Americans, Japanese and Australians especially love the festival. And the residents of Munich naturally do as well.
It all starts off with the traditional Oktoberfest tapping of the first cask of beer at noon in the Schottenhamel festival tent. To be precise, at the moment when Mayor Christian Ude drives the tapper into the cask with a couple of blows and then shouts the famous words "O'zapft is!" into the crowd.
From then on, a state of emergency reigns on the Theresienwiese, and about 500,000 roasted chickens, 118 full-grown oxen, 60 calves, 120,000 pork sausage pairs and 50,000 pork knuckles are about to be consumed, in addition to the 7.5 million liters of beer.
