Mayor Dieter Reiter inserted the tap in the first keg with two blows of a hammer and the cry of "O’zapt is" ‐ "it’s tapped." As tradition demands, he handed the first mug to Bavarian governor Markus Soeder.
Even before the waitresses started bringing the one-liter (two-pint) beer mugs to customers at noon, the festival grounds were so overcrowded that security guards allowed entry only for people with reservations in one of the beer tents.
Revelers ‐ many women in colorful dirndl dresses and men in traditional Bavarian lederhosen ‐ started lining up in front of the gates before dawn to get inside.
"I took the first commuter train early this morning," Felix Stenglein from nearby Eichenau told German news agency dpa.
Shortly after 9 a.m., the festival’s organizers said the party could begin.