World's largest beer festival starts in Munich, Germany | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

The world's largest beer festival, Oktoberfest, has opened in the southern German city of Munich. The festival attracts more than six million people.

It is said to have started in 1810 as a public celebration for the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria.

On the first day of the festival on Saturday, the mayor of Munich performed the traditional hammer strikes to open a keg of beer specially brewed for the occasion to mark the official opening of the festival.

Some 40 large and small beer tents were set up over a vast area. Local people in traditional costumes and tourists from abroad held up beer mugs and made a toast.

Organizers say the price of beer has been rising every year in the inflationary economy. This year, the price is around 15 euros, or about 17 dollars, per liter.

As new safety measures, an AI-powered system that analyzes the movement of people has been deployed to ease congestion at the venue.

Security has been stepped up following an incident in July in which a vehicle was driven into a crowd at a large event in the capital Berlin.

The Oktoberfest will run through October 4.