The big Bavarian folk festival is officially canceled, but hosts invite you to the Wirtshauswiesn and virtual tours from Saturday on. Next year Munich wants to celebrate a real Oktoberfest again.
Munich – For the second time the Oktoberfest has been canceled due to the corona pandemic – but in Munich on Saturday it will be “Ozapft is”. In many taverns, beer barrels are pierced at 12 noon for the originally planned Oktoberfest start. In more than 50 restaurants, innkeepers in the city center and Oktoberfest invite you to the Wirtshauswiesn for two weeks until October 3rd. Other pubs will also have Oktoberfest festivities with music, Oktoberfest beer and traditional costumes.
Many are already looking hopefully to 2022. Munich’s Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) wants to decide on the Oktoberfest 2022 “by April next year at the latest”. “I definitely want that there will be two Oktoberfest cancellations during my term of office,” said Reiter of the Augsburger Allgemeine (Saturday). There are already talks on implementation.
Reiter emphasized that there would be no Oktoberfest for everyone. “If someone does not want to be tested or vaccinated, then he will not be able to go to the Oktoberfest in 2022,” said Reiter of the newspaper. There are various conceivable variants, technical and personal controls. In the tents, however, there will be no restrictions – “for example that distances must be maintained, masks must be worn or only every fifth bench can be occupied.” There cannot be a “neutered Oktoberfest”. “Then this is not an Oktoberfest. Before something like that happens, we’d better let it be. “
Opened with the cry “Ozapft is”
The economics officer and Wiesn boss Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU) thinks it tends to be possible that the Oktoberfest could be celebrated with vaccinated and convalescent people – possibly with additional tests for the visitors of both groups.
Normally, Reiter would have officially opened the festival at 12 noon in the Schottenhamel tent by shouting “Ozapft is”. Now the tapping ceremony is celebrated in different ways. While the head of the house and spokesman for the Oktoberfest landlords, Peter Inselkammer, taps the first barrel in the “Ayinger am Platzl”, a few steps further in the Hofbräuhaus, the Oktoberfest playmate 2021, Vanessa Teske, swings the mallet – the tool for tapping.
The former mayor of Munich and former tap king Christian Ude (SPD) will tap a barrel in the Schiller Bräu in the Bahnhofsviertel. Ude was the first mayor to tap the traditional 200-liter keg at the Oktoberfest in 2005 with just two blows and held the record until the end of his term of office.
Wirthauswiesn and virtual Oktoberfest tours
On the Oktoberfest grounds on Theresienwiese there are again Corona test tents instead of Oktoberfest festival tents. In the previous year, a few Oktoberfest fans in traditional costumes had gathered there – some picnicked with a cola mix and non-alcoholic shandy below the Bavaria. This year there is no alcohol ban on the premises. “We have the confidence that those who come to the Oktoberfest anyway, do so in compliance with the hygiene regulations,” said Baumgärtner.
In addition, several demonstrations are planned on the Theresienwiese. Among other things, the Climate Autumn Network wants to celebrate a “Oktoberfest entry of possibilities” – analogous to the arrival of the hosts.
In addition to Oktoberfest beer and Wirthauswiesn, virtual Oktoberfest tours are also intended to keep fans interested. An Wiesn expert is there for the online tours through Theresienwiese and answers questions. One day that will be Wiesn boss Baumgärtner, the landlord’s spokesmen Peter Inselkammer and Christian Schottenhamel, but also the legendary “Shift” Manfred Schauer. dpa
