Finding a table in any beer tent is the first priority for most visitors, finding one in the right tent is second.

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However, The Lancet medical journal reports a rare complication suffered by a 28-year-old man who was bitten on the calf by an unknown woman at the festival while he was dancing on a beer table.

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One major difference between then and now: alcohol and drinking had long been ubiquitous in American life, from sacramental wine at mass, in Jewish rites, and at the dinner table, to beer at the pub and spirits made in backwoods distilleries.

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As a result, everything from plane tickets to hotel rooms to beer tent table reservations are very hard to come by, and often sell out more than half a year in advance.

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But he turned his back, picked up a beer from the end table next to a chair.

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Budweiser, the biggest brand of all, has only 3.6% of the 1.3 billion-hectolitre world beer market (see table), and the top 20 combined have barely more than a quarter.

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Against the wall beside the pool table was a half-size refrigerator jammed with beer.

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But the Uber offices themselves have the usual Silicon Valley accouterments as I walk with Mr. Kalanick to a cluttered conference room, we pass a game room with a Foosball table, a Pepsi-stocked fridge and two tapped beer kegs.

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