Munich's Oktoberfest opened at noon on Saturday when the city's new mayor, Dominik Krause, drove the mallet into the first barrel at the Schottenhamel tent — twice, which by Wiesn standards counts as a clean start. Cannon fire told the rest of the 34.5-hectare Theresienwiese that beer could be poured, and the 191st edition was under way.
The more interesting part of the morning happened at the gates. They opened at 9am to a crowd that had been forming since the previous evening — the first group in line said they had arrived at 7pm on Friday with camping chairs and sleeping bags — and organisers let people onto the grounds in stages rather than all at once, holding back sections of the queue to break up the traditional sprint for the best tent benches.
That staging is the visible edge of the crowd-management overhaul Munich has built for this edition after last year's crush, alongside 26 new cameras, an automated crowd-flow system meant to flag overcrowding before it becomes dangerous, and a dedicated coordination centre. Opening morning is the first real load test of it.
More than six million visitors are expected across the 16 days to 4 October. A litre costs between €14.80 and €15.90, an average of €15.61 — up 2.38% on last year, and close to five times the 1985 price in real terms.
Source
Original summary by Proventier.