After a long wait it is done: „O‘zapf is!“ how the Bavarians like to say, if they open a new beer barrel. But this time it is not an ordinary beer barrel, it is the first barrel of the Oktoberfest! That means that the Oktoberfest 2008 is finally opened.
At 12 o’clock the mayor of Munich tapps the first barrel. The tradition, that the mayor of Munich taps the first barrel was established in 1950 by Thomas Wimmer, a legendary mayor short after the Second World War.
The first tapped beer belongs to the Minister President of Bavaria. When the first beer barrel is tapped twelve riflemen fire a salute. This firing is the signal for the other landlords to tap their first barrels.
