Prost! It's Oktoberfest!

(Munich, Germany) An estimated one million visitors invaded Munich this past weekend for Oktoberfest.

In brilliant sunshine, the Oompah bands played as buxom waitresses served more than one-half million liters of beer.

Munich Mayor Christian Ude ceremonially tapped the first keg

The Red Cross ambulance service counted only 60 so-called "beer corpses" -- people who had drunk themselves into unconsciousness -- on Saturday, half as many as last year, but a spokeswoman for the Munich police had her doubts about the figure. "I can't imagine it was so few," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE, adding that the police attended to 112 incidents over the weekend and detained 53 people for a variety of offenses.

The incidents reflected Oktoberfest's truly international character. An over-exuberant American man, for example, threw a 15-centimeter carrot through a tent, slightly injuring a 29-year-old woman from Chile just below the eye.

And one drunken 22-year-old Swiss man who visited a ghost train, one of the attractions at the Oktoberfest, got so scared by a mechanical ghost that he literally punched its lights out.

Most of the 14 giant tents, some holding as many as 10,000 people, were closed to newcomers by noon Saturday.

Incidentally, 11 oxen were eaten, two more than last year. The festival continues until October 7th.