The Oktoberfest was last celebrated in Munich in 2019.
(Photo: IMAGO/Nordphoto)
Munich After a two-year Corona break, the 187th Oktoberfest starts on Saturday. “People feel like celebrating again,” Munich’s economics officer and Wiesn boss Clemens Baumgärtner told the Handelsblatt.
The largest folk festival in the world brings in more than one billion euros in sales and is a blessing for retail in Munich in difficult times. “Many traditional costume shops are sold out, and the margins here are good for the textile retail trade.” The crafts also benefit, you can see that during the construction.
In recent years, the Wiesn had been canceled due to the corona pandemic. “Everyone has the freedom of choice to come or not,” said Baumgärtner. It is possible that there was some reluctance at first because people wanted to get an idea first. In addition, the weather forecast for the start is mixed.
As is almost always the case, beer has become more expensive again. The cheapest beer is 12.60 euros in the museum tent at the “Oidn Wiesn”, in the Käfer Wiesn-Schänke a liter of beer costs 13.70 euros. On average, according to the city, prices rose by almost 16 percent compared to 2019.
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The special Oktoberfest beers from the six major Munich breweries Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Löwenbräu, Paulaner, Spaten and Staatliches Hofbräuhaus are served in the 17 marquees with a total of around 120,000 seats.
The festival tents on the Theresienwiese in Munich are already being prepared for the onslaught.
(Photo: IMAGO/Smith)
Being awarded a tent at the Wiesn is a special – and quite lucrative – privilege for the Munich innkeepers. One of the newcomers this year is Lorenz Stifftl with the “Schützenlisl”. Becoming a Wiesn host, he said, is a similar crowning achievement, “like when a pastor suddenly becomes a bishop”.
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The Oktoberfest is an important economic factor for the city. According to a survey by the Economics Department, the approximately 6.3 million visitors at the last Wiesn in 2019 spent an average of 71 euros per person directly on the festival grounds, a total of almost half a billion euros.
Most of the visitors still come from Bavaria
Catering, shopping in the city and taxi rides cost foreign visitors a total of around 290 million euros. There was also a good 500 million euros for overnight stays and gastronomy.
Even though many Italians and Australians can be found in the Löwenbräu tent, for example, the Wiesn is still a Bavarian folk festival at its core. Most recently, 70 percent of the visitors came from Bavaria, 62 percent of them from Munich and the surrounding area.
The Oktoberfest was last celebrated in Munich in 2019.
(Photo: dpa)
Hardly anyone dares to guess how many visitors there will be this year. Also this year not everyone feels comfortable with the thought of an Oktoberfest in times of Corona. After folk festivals, the number of infected people often skyrocketed, most recently at the Straubing Gäuboden folk festival. “For those who go to the Wiesn: The probability of transmission is high,” said Christoph Spinner, pandemic officer at the Klinikum Rechts der Isar of the TU Munich.
But Munich’s Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter said: “It’s slowly becoming a Oktoberfest mood.” After three years it was time to “live normality again”. In order not to overcrowd the already busy emergency rooms in the hospitals, there will be a computer tomograph at the Oktoberfest for the first time this year. In the case of lacerations, worse things should be ruled out right on the spot.
More: The Oktoberfest is now a registered trademark