MUNICH — Oktoberfest is open. Mayor Dieter Reiter officially started Oktoberfest at noon Saturday when he inserted the tap into the first beer keg, signaling the 189th start of the festival. Festivalgoers enjoy the first glasses of beer Saturday, the first day of the 189th Oktoberfest beer festival, in Munich, Germany.
Thousands of beer lovers celebrated in the Munich fairground as the first to clink their mugs during the world's largest folk festival. Servers immediately began ferrying trays — each carrying up to 8 glass mugs — to tables. Revelers started clinking their mugs and taking deep gulps of beer in the stuffy heat of the tent.
A waitress carries beer mugs in the Hofbraeuhaus beer tent Saturday, the first day of the 189th Oktoberfest beer festival, in Munich, Germany. The celebration runs through Oct. 6 in 18 large tents covering the Theresienwiese fairground.
This year's festival includes stepped-up security in the wake of a deadly knife attack in Solingen , a city roughly 292 miles northwest of Munich. The violence on Aug. 23 left three people dead and eight more wounded, and the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, without citing evidence.
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