It rained a bit during the week in Munich so when the sun came out on Saturday morning, the crowds were chomping at their bit to get to the action of the Oktoberfest. There are no records kept for such feats but long-term observers think that the mass spurt to the beer tents reached Olympian heights on this glorious Bavarian morning. At 9:00 the gates were opened and the assembled crowds poured into the Bavarian heaven. At 9:04 the police declared that the Löwenbräu tent, a gigantic piece of canvas occupied by a brass band and thousands of customers, was full and the doors were closed. Police could not explain how so many people could sprint across the open space and pour into the tent in only 4 minutes, aber so war es!.
Otherwise it has been a relatively normal Fest. On Saturday 600,000 people showed up, during the week 200,000 Italian tourist made the journey north, dramatically reversing the usual trend, 3,4 million liters of beer were drunk, 200,000 more than last year, you don’t want to know how many oxen ended up on the barbecue, 3921 patients had to be treated by the Red Cross, and 14 pickpockets were arrested. Mensch, was willst du noch mehr?