The world’s largest beer festival, Munich’s Oktoberfest, ended its 16-day party with a ceremonial gun salute on Sunday after it had set a record with 7.4 million visitors, organisers said.
According to the city of Munich, that figure was up from 6.5 million in the previous year.
Beer consumption also rose, organisers said, to 6.7 million so-called “Mass” one-litre mugs sold, an increase of 2.7%. Sales of non-alcoholic drinks rose by 10%.
"For many people, Munich's Oktoberfest is simply on their bucket list,” said the head of the Oktoberfest, Christian Scharpf, adding “it is something you have to see once and experience once in your lifetime."
More than 1,000 clothing items again topped the list at lost and found counters, followed by 700 wallets and 450 identity documents.
Separately, festival staff took care of six children who went temporarily missing, “aged between 0 and 13 years,” the city said.
A total of 105,000 beer mugs were collected after visitors had attempted to steal them.
Most visitors came from Germany, while Americans, Italians and Austrians topped the numbers for foreign visitors, the organisers said, who based their findings on mobile phone data.
Next year’s Oktoberfest takes place from September 18 to October 3, 2027.