On Monday, Bavaria’s state premier, Markus Söder, announced that the Munich Oktoberfest will not take place again this year, due to the ongoing pandemic.
Following a meeting with Munich’s city mayor, Dietmar Reiter, Bavarian State Premier Markus Söder announced that big public events in Bavaria will not be allowed to take place this year, due to the coronavirus in Germany. This includes Munich’s annual Oktoberfest.
“In the classic beer tents at the big festivals, social distancing, masks and other measures are practically impossible to implement,” Söder said. “Imagine there was a new wave and it then became a superspreader event. The brand would be damaged forever, and we don’t want that.”
Söder and Reiter made the decision after talks with the leaders of other cities that host large festivals. “It’s a decision I have to make now. It makes no sense to wait,” Reiter said. He added that cancelling the festival was “a great pity,” and acknowledged the consequences the decision would have on people’s livelihoods. In 2019, the Oktoberfest in Munich generated an estimated 1,23 million euros for the local economy.
Clemens Baumgärtner, the head of the Munich Oktoberfest, said the decision to call the festival off was “completely correct not only out of consideration for the health of the visitors, but also out of consideration for the good reputation of the Munich Oktoberfest as a high-quality, safe festival." He went on to say he believed next year’s Oktoberfest will be "very, very well attended because people are hungry and thirsty."