Fun Facts about Oktoberfest

Interesting Facts from this year's Munich Oktoberfest:

The Munich Oktoberfest takes place on the 103.79 acre Theresienwiese fairgrounds, which uses 2.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity (14 percent of Munich's total consumption), and 237 million gallons of water during Oktoberfest. In 2004 it produced 978 tons of trash. (courtesy of Munich Department of Labor and Economic Development)

6.6 million liters (1.74 million gallons) of beer were consumed, for the 6 million visitors that attended this year; that's an average of 1.1 beers a person. That doesn't include non-alcoholic beer, mulled wine, and other beverages.

104 roast oxen were consumed by the crowds.

Items lost at the Oktoberfest included: “680 identity cards and passports, 410 wallets, 360 keys, 265 spectacles, 280 mobile phones and 80 cameras, one set of diving goggles, one set of angel's wings, a superman costume and four wedding rings. A long-haired Dachshund was also found roaming the festival ground, but was later reclaimed by its owner.”
(Data courtesy of Spiegel Online)

Facts from previous years:

Food consumed in 2007: 1.8 million gallons of beer (plus 33,523 gallons of non-alcoholic); 521,872 units of chicken; 142,253 pairs of pork sausages; 85,208 lbs. of fish; 58,446 pig knuckles; and 104 whole oxen for 6.2 million people. (Munich Department of Labor)

Record attendance was 7.2 million people in 1985, and record beer consumption was 1.82 million gallons in 2006. (courtesy of Spaten)

An estimated 950 million Euros are spent in Munich over the 16 days of Oktoberfest, and it employs an estimated 12,000 people. (Munich Department of Labor)

Washington's "Das Best Oktoberfest" on September 27 at the National Harbor drew more than 5000 people, and more than 1,937 gallons of beer and 1,200 sausages were consumed.