Oktoberfest hikes beer prices for 200th anniversary

Germany’s world-famous beer festival Oktoberfest said Wednesday that it has upped the price for its huge mugs of amber nectar to almost €9 for this year’s 200th anniversary event.

A Maß of beer, a litre, will cost between €8.30 and €8.90 at the tents of the southern German city of Munich from September 18 to October 4, an increase of €0.30 from last year.

Food vouchers, required for a reservation in many beer tents, will cost between €26.80 and €80.

The beer festival attracted 5.7 million visitors from around the world in 2009, down from six million in 2008 because of the global recession. But the revellers still managed consumed 6.5 million litres of beer.

This year’s edition will be one day longer than usual and feature a historic reconstruction of the festival in former centuries including an old Oktoberfest tent and twice-daily horse races.

Conceived in 1810 as a celebration of the marriage of King Ludwig to some innocent young princess named Therese, the original Oktoberfest was an organised tournament of military horse races on the Wiese, or meadow, where it’s been held ever since.

After a few years everyone realised that horse racing was really boring compared to drinking beer from chalices the size of your head, and the greatest party in the world was born.