It’s "O’zapft" time again in Munich: The 191st Oktoberfest kicked off with nearly 450,000 visitors attending on the first day. Oktoberfest director Christian Scharpf said it was "picture-perfect start." With amusement rides and huge tents, the world-famous beer festival draws more than 6 million visitors a year to the Wiesn, the Theresienwiese festival grounds.

Hundreds of thousands attended the opening in a peaceful and joyful atmosphere. Crowds packed the grounds from day one, with several beer tents forced to temporarily close by the afternoon because of overcrowding. Some Oktoberfest-goers had even camped overnight at the entrances to secure one of the coveted seats in the beer tents when the grounds opened.

After overcrowding and various dangerous situations in 2025, the security plan for Oktoberfest has been tightened. A monitoring center has been equipped with 50 AI-powered cameras to analyze crowds and detect potential problems. Approximately 600 police officers and several hundred security guards have been deployed. They are also prepared in case of drone incidents.

Tens of thousands of spectators lined the streets for the traditional costume and marksmen parade. This colorful spectacle — featuring some 9,000 marksmen, marching band members, acrobats and performers, as well as decorated floats — winds its way through Munich every year on the second day of Oktoberfest.

Visitors to Oktoberfest need to have a lot of money in their pockets. While no ticket is required to enter the festival grounds, the popular tents fill up quickly, especially on weekends. Anyone wishing to reserve one of the coveted tables should plan on a minimum spending requirement of several hundred euros per table.

Rosa Sonntag, aka Gay Sunday, at the Bräurosl beer tent has been a staple Oktoberfest event for decades. It has tended to draw mainly gay men, but this year the organizers tried to broaden its appeal to the wider LGBTQ+ community. For the first time ever, this year featured an explicitly lesbian event that attracted about 700 people.

For many visitors, it's the beer with around 6% alcohol that's the main attraction. Six of Munich's traditional breweries brew up a special Oktoberfest beer, and about 7 million liters (some 14 million pints) are sold each year. The heavy drinking can be dangerous: more than a third of the incidents at the first-aid stations last year involved acute alcohol intoxication.

A malfunction of the Predator ride caused a moment of panic at the opening, when people on the ride were briefly left hanging upside down. They were then safely removed, and their evacuation took only a few minutes according to the ride operator. The incident was likely caused by a malfunctioning sensor that automatically stopped the ride.