Icon: enlarge
Munich residents in traditional costume on the empty Theresienwiese: start of the "WirtshausWiesn" 2020
Photo: ANDREAS GEBERT / REUTERS
The Munich Oktoberfest, the largest folk festival in the world, is canceled this year due to the corona pandemic.
However, the celebration is still going on, not on the Theresienwiese with up to six million guests, as usual, but in more than 50 restaurants. The alternative event is called "WirtshausWiesn".
At the real "Wiesn" it was quiet on Saturday morning at the time of the traditional first beer barrel tapping.
No wonder: an alcohol ban should prevent wild partying and thus reduce the risk of infection.
But on Saturday at 12 o'clock sharp it was said in many taverns in the city "Ozapft is!"
The former Mayor of Munich Christian Ude (SPD), at the time the tap king, stabbed the Schillerbräu in the Bahnhofsviertel - with two blows - and "a handful more," as he admitted.
The tap was not properly seated, a puddle of beer formed on the floor.
After the first two blows, he added six more to be on the safe side.
Most recently, Ude tapped in 2013 - with two blows.
He was the first Munich mayor in the history of the Oktoberfest who had made it.
Icon: enlarge
Tapping with mouth and nose protection: Munich's ex-mayor Ude needed more than two blows for the first beer barrel at the Schillerbräu inn.
Photo: Felix Hörhager / dpa
Maybe it was the barrel - and the special circumstances that Ude had to look up.
This Saturday was rather small with 20 liters (the traditional Oktoberfest "Hirschen" holds more than 200), but it was "freshly shaken", as Ude said.
It was set up shortly before tapping - at the real Oktoberfest this happens the day before, the barrel is then no longer moved.
The incumbent Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD), whose job would have been the first tapping, is not celebrating today.
He will think a little wistfully about the tapping, but have not planned any alternatives.
He asked everyone who wanted to celebrate anyway to comply with the corona rules, said Reiter.
Like the first time, in 1810
The downtown innkeepers want to create at least a little festive atmosphere by October 4th.
In the restaurants there is the original Wiesnbier, Hendl, Haxn, Brezn and sometimes live brass music.
Numerous Oktoberfest rides have already been in operation across the city for weeks.
With this inevitable "light" version, the Munich gastronomy ties in with the very first Oktoberfest in 1810. At that time, a royal wedding with horse races was celebrated on the Theresienwiese.
People ate, drank and sang in the surrounding inns.
At 12.00 o'clock there were at least isolated "Ozapft is!" Calls on the meadow.
A few smaller groups had gathered.
Among other things, a group of Oktoberfest waitresses in traditional costume picnicked with a cola mix and non-alcoholic shandy below the Bavaria.
They see the "WirtshausWiesn" critically.
"That's a rubbish" said Nicolai Schmidt, who normally would have worked in one of the festival tents, the dpa.
According to the Munich police, who, according to a spokesman, had 60 people in action, everything has remained calm so far.
Climate demo instead of Oktoberfest madness
The climate autumn network used the free space for a demonstration under the motto "Entry of the climate heroes".
More than 100 people attended.
The colorful entourage included an electric carriage on which young women in traditional costumes danced, a donkey, trees in wagons, people dressed up as cows and children on bicycles.
On the Oktoberfest grounds, the demonstrators - accompanied by festival music - wrote their theses on animal welfare, climate justice and a more ecological future with chalk on the asphalt.
Most of the participants wore mouth and nose protection and kept their distance.
more on the subject
Corona in Bavaria: Munich exceeds the limit and faces a tricky weekendBy Jan Friedmann, Munich
Canceled Oktoberfest: Munich fears "wild Oktoberfest"
ARD series "Oktoberfest 1900": Beer here, beer here, or I fall over, fallera by Elke Schmitter
In view of the increasing number of corona infections in Bavaria, but also nationwide, critical voices about "WirthausWiesn" are also increasing in Munich.
On Twitter there is, among other things, criticism that after the signal value of 50 corona infected per 100,000 inhabitants is exceeded, older students have to sit in Munich with masks in school on Monday, but are celebrated in the pubs on the weekend.
"The children have to limit themselves, the stupid WirtshausWiesn can take place," wrote one user.
Another found it "irresponsible" not to cancel the event in the current situation.
Mayor Reiter had announced close controls and wants to convene a crisis team on Monday.
Reiter said to Bayerischer Rundfunk: "I don't think we will take any further measures on Monday. Rather, the value should either rise more significantly or stay above 50 for a long time."
The critical limit value, from which increased infection protection measures apply, was exceeded in Munich on Friday with 50.7 per 100,000 inhabitants.
As a consequence, the city has initially extended the mask requirement in secondary schools.
Reiter warned the restaurateurs on Saturday: "Please always pay attention to compliance with your protection and hygiene concept - mask requirement, distance requirement and all other requirements of the Bavarian Infection Protection Ordinance To prevent mindfulness. "
Oktoberfest boss Clemens Baumgärtner also called on his fellow citizens to be mindful on Bayerischer Rundfunk: "Go to the pub of your choice, whether at home or in Munich, don't go to the Oktoberfest, celebrate in the pub, that's just better".
Anyone caught consuming or selling alcohol on the Theresienwiese must expect a fine.
The few - small - queues of people did not form on Saturday lunchtime in front of the festival tents at the Oktoberfest, but in front of the Corona test station under the Bavaria.
Otherwise, the area on Saturday morning was mainly owned by joggers and walkers.
Icon: The mirror
bor / dpa
