Oktoberfest

It is also known as die Theresienwiese (named for Princess Therese) or just die Wiesn, 31-hectare field Big meadow and 26-hectare field Small meadow.

Each year, the Oktoberfest is attended by around 6 million visitors, who drink more than 5 million liters of beer and consume over 200,000 pairs of pork sausages - mostly in the "beer tents" put up by the traditional Munich breweries.

The Munich Oktoberfest starts at the third weekend of September and lasts 16 days.
The festivities give an official start when the clock of St. Paul's Church in Munich strikes noon, when Munich's Oberbürgermeister (lord mayor) taps the first beer keg and yells the traditional O'zapft is! ("It's tapped!") at 12 noon on the Saturday that starts the event (am Wiesn-Samstag). This Oktoberfest tradition is relatively recent??”it only began in 1950, when the then mayor, Thomas Wimmer, tapped the first keg. One of the highlights of the fest is the Trachtenfest parade, one in which thousands of participants from all over Germany dress in their native costume. Bands, floats and decorated beer wagons drawn by beautiful horses wind their way through the downtown streets and out to the Wies'n, short for festival grounds.

The festival originated in Germany has it??™s successors in other countries, one of them is America. With the exception of the obvious emphasis on beer, Oktoberfest is more like a huge American state fair, complete with fun rides, merry-go-rounds, carnival booths, food, entertainment for the enjoyment and excitement of visitors of all ages and, of course, those 14 famous beer halls sponsored by Bavarian brewers such as Paulaner, Löwenbräu or Spaten.

The festivities are accompanied by a program of events, including the Grand Entry of the Oktoberfest Landlords and Breweries, the Costume and Riflemen's Procession, and a concert involving all the brass bands represented at the "Wies'n".