Munich, Germany: Thousands of beer drinkers from around the world, came to Munich on a sunny Saturday for the largest and most famous beer festival on earth, the Oktoberfest.

The world's most famous beer festival is expected to attract some six million visitors. Some five million liters of beer and more than 400,000 sausages are ready for consumption at the event. The Oktoberfest began in 1810 as a five-day celebration of the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildenburghausen and has developed into an annual extravaganza of food, drink and folklore, spawning tributes and imitations from Chicago to Hong Kong.

The festival is one of Germany's biggest tourist events, attracting visitors from all over the world, employing some 12,000 people and generating almost one billion euros ($1.13 billion) for the local economy.

24 September, 2003