Oktoberfest Less Boozy This Year

The beer festival to end all beer festivals was actually a day longer this year than in the past; it ran until Monday's Unity Day holiday. But despite the extra time to tipple, less beer was actually guzzled at this year's boozy bash than in the past.

The 172nd Oktoberfest still saw a lot of beer flow down a lot of gullets. Some 6.1 million people descended on the tents set up in the Bavarian capital Munich to engage in an orgy of beer drinking, pretzel-munching and bratwurst-noshing. That beat last year's crowd of 5.9 million.

And while the amount of food consumed also jumped -- the number of cows slaughtered rose from 89 to 95 -- the amount of the sudsy stuff imbibed fell. About 6 million liters (13 million pints) of beer were downed, but that is about 100,000 liters below 2004 levels.

The unseasonably cool and often wet weather might have dampened the drinking spirit. Others said new regulations that called for the volume of music played -- including the famous oom-pah bands -- to be lowered before 6 p.m. could have played a role.

"When the music volume is lower people tend to drink a bit less but instead eat more," said Gabriele Weishäupel, head of the Munich tourist office.

Police are happy about it, reporting a drop in the number of assaults at the festival, down 248 this year compared to 351 last year. The overall number of criminal acts fell to 1,304 from 1,690 in 2004.