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Soon possible again: crowds at the Munich Oktoberfest (here in September 2018)
Photo: Matthias Balk/ picture alliance/dpa
How it feels, hundreds of people tightly packed on the benches, with brass band music and the smell of beer, that's what the people of Munich can currently test at the Spring Festival.
First diagnosis from the fully occupied Hippodrome marquee this week: it works.
The chicken tastes the same as always, dirndls and lederhosen obviously need exercise, and people flock to the Theresienwiese.
The folk festival in Munich was considered a test run for the big party in autumn.
And it will increase if nothing serious intervenes.
This Friday, the Mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter (SPD), announced that the city would allow the Oktoberfest again after a two-year Corona break.
The mayor had scheduled a press conference in the town hall's meeting room for the announcement - the attention was even greater than with the traditional tapping.
At 12:39 p.m., Reiter finally spoke the decisive sentence: "I have decided to instruct the administration today to initiate the implementation of the Oktoberfest 2022 without conditions and without restrictions." There is no legal remedy for access restrictions, the local politician explained , so it is irrelevant whether he himself might have advocated such corona precautionary measures.
Instead of holding a jubilee appointment, Reiter was weighing and sometimes doubting.
"I didn't make this decision lightly." He had had many conversations, including three with Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach - who didn't advise him against it either.
Reiter on his considerations: “It was about the political side and the consideration of infectious diseases.” The war in Ukraine does not justify a cancellation of the festival either, everyone has to decide for themselves whether to visit.
billion dollar business
Reiter's words relieve the Bavarian capital of a two-year phantom pain: Because the Oktoberfest was canceled in 2020 and 2021.
Those responsible considered the risk of Covid infection to be too great.
The city, its hoteliers, taxi drivers and traditional costume sellers missed out on a business worth billions.
This should now return: The Oktoberfest 2022 is scheduled from September 17th to October 3rd, the traditional period in the annual calendar.
The first construction work will start soon.
Significant risks remain: the festival and the city are closely linked, and the example of the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl shows how badly a major corona outbreak can damage reputation.
And no sooner had the health risks subsided with the Omikron variant than a new obstacle shoved the joy of celebration: the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It was "hard to imagine for him to celebrate, drink beer and ride a carousel" while bombs were falling in Ukraine, Reiter said a few weeks ago, depressed and impressed by a video conversation between the Munich City Council and his counterpart in the partner city of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko.
But this positioning could not form the planning basis for the permits.
The political pressure to allow the Oktoberfest had become too great.
Neither Corona nor the Ukraine conflict, according to Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (free voters), "should now be used as justification for canceling festivals of this kind." In Munich city politics, representatives from the Greens to the CSU had spoken out in favor of a Wiesn start .
And then there is the vote of the prime minister, formerly the leader of the self-founded “Team Caution”.
Markus Söder (CSU) is currently hardly missing a festival appearance to express his will to normality.
So at the beginning of the week at an event of the gastronomy industry association Dehoga at the Munich Spring Festival.
"Three times in a row without Oktoberfest, that's not good for Bavaria and Munich," explained Söder.
"I think we should do it."
Everyone can vaccinate and everyone can decide whether they want to visit a folk festival, Söder argued in relation to the pandemic risks.
He also had to get used to full tables, but that went quickly.
And with regard to Corona: »I want to send a signal that we are in a different phase and for me this phase means more personal responsibility and less government regulation.«
The Dehoga meeting was a close alliance between the CSU and gastronomy: there are state elections in 2023, the CSU is worried about its majorities, and the innkeepers have repeatedly shown themselves upset about Söder’s once strict course in the pandemic.
But these times should be over: Söder told how he pushed through the reduced VAT on food in Berlin.
At the end, the head of government stood on the stage with three ministers, and Health Minister Klaus Holetschek received a gift basket with Bavarian delicacies from Dehoga.
The Bavarian Dehoga President Angela Inselkammer confidently formulated the message from the industry to politicians: »We will no longer close, we will no longer lock up.«
Higher appreciation, higher prices
However, at the industry meeting with Söder, as with the entire Oktoberfest initiation in 2022, it became apparent that a third factor may also be threatening happiness and business: the currently high inflation.
Gastronomy is considered to be particularly sensitive to price increases, which are a fortiori factor at the mass Oktoberfest event: Thousands of chickens have to be grilled, the beer cooled and transported, the rides have to rotate.
This requires gas and electricity.
The prices for the beer at the Oktoberfest have not yet been determined, they are checked by the city and are always a small political issue.
Inselkammer announced for the gastronomy that "our guests must reward this service with greater appreciation, i.e. higher prices.
That's the way it is.« At the same time, the Oktoberfest hosts cannot count on a record rush after the forced break, because the number of visitors was not a sure-fire success even before Corona.
Reiter, who in his announcement did not spare criticism of Söder's folk festival hopping, announced to his townspeople that at least one cost item would not be incurred: expenses for a possible cancellation of the Wiesn shortly before the start.
These will “in any case not be paid for by the Munich taxpayers.
We will provide for corresponding regulations in all contracts.« The mayor ended his statement in a thoughtful tone: »I wish us all at least a peaceful Oktoberfest.«
