Photos of Beer, Beards, and Broken Heroes at Oktoberfest

Boasting over 6,900,000 liters of beer, 75,000 pork shanks, and who knows how many bierleichen (German for ‘beer corpses’ AKA pass-out drunks), annual “folk festival” Oktoberfest has a reputation for excessive drinking and boozy debauchery. But Swedish photographer Christian Nilson sees past the purely hedonistic notoriety of the event. 

“Obviously the good beer is a plus, but not the main attraction,” he says. What pulls Nilson back year after year is the jumble of different characters that the festival attracts. “The history of it spanning more than 200 years, the masses of people, the mix of ages—from newborns to the elderly, the melting pot of different nationalities and cultures all gathered together.”

Check out his photos from this year’s Oktoberfest above.