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Blue-white sky, sunshine – perfect Wiesn weather is in for this Saturday. At 12 noon on September 19, the mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter (SPD), in lederhosen, presumably would have struck the first beer keg with two strokes and opened the largest festival in the world. But in Theresienwiese it is now called a test tent instead of a festival tent. Wherever millions of liters of beer flow, people can get tested for the corona virus.
At the start of the originally planned Oktoberfest, there might even be an alcohol ban there, of all places, to avoid surrogate private parties with a high risk of infection. For the first time in 70 years, the Munich Oktoberfest has been canceled, a historic decision.
“An autumn without Oktoberfest, there is just something missing,” says Mayor Reiter. On Saturday he would have given Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) the first mug of beer. Instead, however, the two went to the press together in April to announce the decision to cancel Oktoberfest. “It hurts us,” Söder said at the time. Reiter spoke of a sad day and an emotionally difficult time.
However, on Saturday in Munich it will be said a dozen times: “O’zapft is”. “WirthausWiesn” is the name of the alternative to the failed folk festival, with which more than 50 hosts in Munich want to create an Oktoberfest atmosphere until October 4, including the innkeepers in the center and the great Oktoberfest hosts in their pubs.
“For us, Oktoberfest is not a place or an event. Oktoberfest is a deep feeling of life that is anchored in us,” says the spokesman for the center’s owners, Gregor Lemke. WirthausWiesn locations can be recognized by the flag with the campaign logo.
It seems that it is the time of the alumni: the former mayor Christian Ude (SPD), who handed over the office and thus the tapping ritual to Reiter in 2014, is starting the station district; Josef Schmid (CSU), former economic advisor and former head of Wiesn, works at Augustiner am Platzl.
“Koa Wiesn-Krug” for Oktoberfest beer
The “WirtshausWiesn” wants to build on the wedding of Crown Prince Louis to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen in 1810 as the origin of the Wiesn. A horse race was held on Theresienwiese, named after the bride, but there was nothing to eat or drink. Therefore, the king invited subjects to the inns, perhaps also an idea for “King Markus,” says Lemke, referring to the head of the Bavarian government, Söder.
Oktoberfest beer has been flowing for weeks, mostly “at home”: breweries have made many millions of liters despite pushback; barley juice in some cases had better sales than usual.
The carousels have also been spinning in different squares for weeks. At Königsplatz a Ferris wheel allows a view of the city, a 90 meter high chain carousel surrounds the Olympic site. There are shooting galleries, costume stalls, cotton candy and gingerbread hearts: “Summer in the City” is the name of the alternative show.
At “Trachtival” The cult roller coaster “Wilde Maus” draws in the Werksviertel Mitte. Instead of Oktoberfest, the “Max” or “Paul” oxen are now lit Chinese tower In the grilled English garden, on Saturday for tapping there is beef in the legendary Hofbräuhaus.
For showmen, innkeepers, and merchants, this brings at least some merit. Hotels, restaurants, taxi drivers and retailers are also losing revenue. According to the city, Oktoberfest 2019 had an economic value of around 1.23 billion euros; otherwise, six million guests from around the world attend the world’s largest folk festival. Full rides, crowded tents – the festival would have become a mega source of infection. Otherwise, the so-called Wiesn flu was already widespread.
Doctors: “skeptical rather than concerned”
Doctors are also wary of Wiesn’s alternatives. If hygiene rules are followed, the risk can be assessed, says Bernd Zwißler from the Anesthesiology Clinic at the University of Munich Clinic. The ideal to avoid the transmission of diseases is not to comply. Completely banning such events is neither socially acceptable nor proportionate.
In view of the growing numbers, he sees a “Wiesn light” rather “skeptical than worrying,” says Clemens Wendtner, chief physician of the infectious disease clinic at the Schwabing clinic in Munich. “This year we all have to make sacrifices and not lose sight of the big picture, that is, control of the pandemic. The next ‘smart Oktoberfest’ will definitely come when we are no longer dealing with the virus, hopefully next year.”
What happens on Saturday at Theresienwiese as the original venue of the folk festival is open. There are few stalls in the area that, with its dry tufts of grass and gravel, is more of a steppe than a meadow. They didn’t want rides there. As an alternative to Oktoberfest, climate protection activists want to demonstrate there, but at the same time an entry ban is being discussed in addition to a ban on alcohol: there are fears that Oktoberfest fans may celebrate a “wild Oktoberfest”, with a high risk of infection. And the district administration official, Thomas Böhle, notes: “Certainly there are more beautiful things than standing in an empty and sterile space and drinking beer that you have brought with you.”
