Prost! Oktoberfest is back after 2-year hiatus

Kegs tapped as revelers gather again in Munich

MUNICH — The beer is flowing at Munich’s world-famous Oktoberfest for the first time since 2019.

With three knocks of a hammer and the traditional cry of “O’zapft is” — “It’s tapped” — Mayor Dieter Reiter inserted the tap in the first keg at noon on Saturday, officially opening the festivities after a two-year break forced by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Oktoberfest has typically drawn about 6 million visitors every year to packed festival grounds in Bavaria’s capital. The event did not take place in 2020 and 2021 as authorities grappled with the unpredictable development of COVID-19 infections and restrictions.

Those worries were put aside this year. The city announced in late April that Oktoberfest would go ahead, and Reiter said Saturday that “it was a good decision.”

“I’m glad that we can finally celebrate together,” Bavarian governor Markus Soeder said at the opening ceremony. “There are many who say, ‘Can we, can we not? Is it appropriate now?’ I just want to say one thing: We have two or three difficult years behind us, no one knows exactly what this winter will belike, and we need joie de vivre and strength.”

Three hours before Reiter tapped the first keg, revelers rushed to secure seats in the huge beer tents as the gates to the festival opened.

They will need significantly deeper pockets than at the last Oktoberfest, with brewers and visitors facing pressure from inflation.

A 1-liter (2-pint) mug of beer costs between $12.84 and $14.07 this year, which is an increase of about 15 percent compared with 2019, according to the festival’s official homepage.

This year’s Oktoberfest, the 187th edition runs through Oct. 3.

Soeder told the daily Muenchner Merkur newspaper in comments published earlier Saturday that the number of coronavirus infections would probably rise following the Oktoberfest but “at the same time, thankfully, we aren’t measuring an undue strain on hospitals anywhere.”

“That speaks for us being in new phase of corona,” he said, adding that authorities would try to protect vulnerable people but not prevent celebrations.

Michael Probst The Associated Press Young people reach out for free beer in one of the beer tents on the opening day of the 187th Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, Germany, Saturday as Oktoberfest is back in Germany after two years of pandemic cancellations.