Munich Cancels Oktoberfest – Says Just too Risky

Germany’s famous Oktoberfest is cancelled.

In a joint statement, Markus Söder, Bavaria’s minister president, and Dieter Reiter, Munich’s lord mayor, cited the coronavirus pandemic as the reason.

“It hurts, it’s such a pity,” Söder said, as noted in comments shared on the Oktoberfest website from the press conference. “We have agreed that the risk is simply too high.”

The event was scheduled to run from September 19th until October 4th and will likely represent hundreds of millions, if not a billion euros in lost revenue to the country.

a man holding a glass of beer

NoMasCoach writer Stephen visited Munich last year and reported on Oktoberfest, saying that it should be on your bucket list. It looks like that bucket list is going to have to wait a year until 2021.

What about simply postponing the event?

a large statue of a person in a cloud with a harp and people in the background

In short, no.

Clemens Baumgärtner, the head of Oktoberfest, described the postponement as impossible.

“The Wiesn (Oktoberfest) is a total work of art that you either do completely or not at all – and this work of art cannot be moved backwards or made in a smaller form.”

How about a Virtual Oktoberfest?

Plenty of events are being cancelled worldwide, and fans are taking to Zoom, or other video platforms, to have their own mini virtual events. If that’s you, and you’re a true Oktoberfest fan, grab a Hofbrau Liter, put on your leiderhosen (even just the top, no one looks at your pants in video conferences…), and raise a glass. We’ll all get through this together!

Author: Jon Nickel-D'Andrea

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1 Comment

  1. They did the right thing. Way too dangerous. Consider the three who stood in line to vote in the Wisconsin primary. They are sick with the virus because the Democratic Governor was pushed by Chump and the Republican legislature to open the voting in person.

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