Bavarian brewery president says Oktoberfest should charge entry

The President of the Bavarian Brewery Association has suggested that Oktoberfest organisers should begin charging revellers for entrance to the festival grounds.

Beer sales cannot be only Oktoberfest revenue

Speaking in an interview with the Augsburger Allgemeine, President of the Bavarian Brewery Association, Georg Schneider, has suggested that Oktoberfest organisers charge entry to the beer festival.

Currently, Oktoberfest visitors only pay for a ticket to drink in one of the festival's many beer tents or to take a spin on the fairground rides. General entrance to the festival grounds, the Wiesn, is free.

“Oktoberfest visitors contribute to covering the costs of this festival through their beer consumption,” Schneider told the local newspaper. “At the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves if beer alone is enough to finance festivals like Oktoberfest.”

Schneider is the owner of G. Schneider & Sohn, a brewery which produces Schneider Weisse wheat beer in Munich. Oktoberfest boss Christian Scharpf was quick to spurn Schneider's suggestion. 

"Oktoberfest is a folk festival, not an amusement park," Scharpf told the newspaper. "An entrance fee is completely at odds with the folk festival character of the Wiesn and is out of the question.”

The origins of Oktoberfest stretch back to the wedding of Prince Regent Ludwig (later King Ludwig I of Bavaria) and Princess Therese on October 12, 1810. Munich residents were invited to attend the festivities, which took place on the fields in front of the city gates. The location was later named “Theresienwiese” (Theresa’s Meadow), now colloquially the Wiesn.

2026 Oktoberfest Maß price still uncertain

While general entrance to Oktoberfest remains free, many await the annual announcement of how much a 1-litre glass of beer (Maß or Maßkrug) will cost at this year’s festival.

With each branded beer tent determining its own prices, at the 2025 festival, a Maß cost between 14,50 and 15,80 euros, an average of 3,52 percent more than at the 2024 festival.

In 2025, a total of 6,5 million people attended Oktoberfest, drinking 6,5 million litres of beer, compared to 7 million litres in 2024 and 7,4 million in 2023.