Oktoberfest hopes weak euro fuels thirst for beer

A huge beer stein is seen in front of Munich's St. Paul's Cathedral as part of the decorations for this year's Oktoberfest.

September 15, 2000
Web posted at: 12:41 p.m. EDT (1641 GMT)

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) -- The weak euro could help Germany's Oktoberfest set an attendance record when the world's biggest beer festival begins in Munich on Saturday.

The festival will run two days longer than usual at 18 days, to end on October 3 when Germany celebrates 10 years since reunification with a public holiday.

Organizers are confident that the longer run and the euro's weakness against the dollar, British pound and Japanese yen will lift attendance above seven million and possibly above the 7.1 million record set in 1985.

"We could well set a record this year," said Gabriele Papke, a spokeswoman for Munich's tourist office. "A lot will depend on whether we have good weather. We expect lots of Americans because of the favorable dollar rate."

The dollar has pushed the euro to successive lows since it was launched 20 months ago while the German mark -- still used in everyday life -- has surged to a 14-year peak of about 2.26 to the dollar.

Last year 6.5 million visitors from around the world drank a record 5.8 million liters (1.28 million gallons) of beer at the two-week orgy of beer drinking, packing the city of 1.8 million and leaving behind revenues of 1.4 billion marks ($650 million).

About 10 percent of the visitors come from abroad, with Australians, Americans, Italians, Japanese and British filling 14 cavernous beer tents as big as football fields that hold up to 10,000 people, many of whom dance on the tables to Bavarian oom-pah brass bands.

The annual tribute to Bavaria's favorite beverage traces its roots to 1810 when it was first held to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princes Therese of Saxony-Hildenburghausen.

Local rules stipulate that only beer brewed in Munich can be sold, a requirement that enrages Prinz Luitpold, a relative of the old Bavarian royal house, whose palace brewery is outside the Bavarian capital city's limits.

"Oktoberfest is just a great big rip-off for American tourists," the prince told Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper. He has tried for 22 years to obtain a license to sell his brew at Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest begins when Mayor Christian Ude, wearing Bavarian lederhosen leather shorts, taps the first keg at noon with a hammer and shouts the "O'zapft is" -- the keg is tapped.

The price of the beer is closely watched, and this year it will cost between 11.20 marks and 12.60 marks per liter -- a rise of seven percent from a year ago even though the German inflation rate has been less than two percent. Organizers point out that, in exchange for the price rise, toilets this year are free.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For more FOOD news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.

See related sites about FOOD

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.