On Friday 28 October at 7PM in the hall of the Master Centre of the Novi Sad Fair, Novi Sad Oktoberfest was officially opened. At the opening ceremony were: Miloš Vučević, Mayor of Novi Sad, Alexander Jung, Deputy Chief of Mission at the German Embassy in Belgrade, Slobodan Cvetković, general manager of the Novi Sad Fair, Robert Čoban, the president of Color Press Group and Doris Danilović, Deputy Director of the German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Miloš Vučević with the help of a wooden hammer officially opened the beer keg and thus symbolically opened the festival held for the first time in Novi Sad, organised by Color Press Group and the Novi Sad Fair, under the auspices of the city of Novi Sad.
In the audience that day many public figures were seen, like Maja Gojković, president of the Assembly of Serbia, Vladan Vukosavljević, Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, or Dragan Đilas, former mayor of Belgrade.
The music programme included Zvonko Bogdan, The Frajle, Ničim izazvan, Gift, Orthodox Celts, Jurassic Rock and Šikle i vikleri.
Every evening there was a competition in fast beer drinking and keeping mugs. The first “Oktoberfest” in Novi Sad was visited by 15000 people, tens of thousands of liters of beer were drunk, and 5 thousand sausages and over 10 thousand pretzels were eaten. The festival is now among the most important events in Novi Sad. It was supported Heineken, Apatin Brewery, Carlsberg Serbia, Chipsy, Paulaner, Best Seed Producer, Ford, Gebrüder Weiss, and a large number of manufacturers of craft beers.
