You could sum up the first week of the Oktoberfest this year with these three words: Calmer, younger, Layla. Wiesn boss and economics officer Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU) needed a few more words to take stock at halftime. But it’s also his job to go a little deeper.
“According to estimates by the festival management, three million guests came to the Theresienwiese up to and including Sunday,” he said. That would be about ten percent less than at the last Oktoberfest in 2019. The Oktoberfest started “much quieter”, but this is also due to the bad weather on the first few days. All in all, after a two-year break, one can say: “The restart was successful.”
However, there was a sharp slump at the Oidn Wiesn, instead of a quarter of a million visitors three years ago, this time there were only around 100,000 in the first week. Baumgärtner elegantly paraphrased this: “The Oide Wiesn was again primarily a place for young families.”
Beer consumption throughout the Oktoberfest has also fallen quite significantly by 15 percent. The showmen didn’t do much business during the first four (rainy) days, but are now satisfied and hope that the second week won’t be quite as unpleasant as the weather forecast predicts.
Attacks on police officers have increased significantly
The police and medical service are reporting fewer offenses and fewer emergencies than usual. And the Wiesn hit is a clear favorite, beyond the age-old classic “A toast to cosiness”. Baumgärtner: “Layla goes off in the tents like the fire brigade.”
In turn, she was mainly occupied with emergency medical services. She recorded 79 missions in the first week, a significant decrease compared to normal Oktoberfest years. The police were also rather quiet, according to press spokesman Andreas Franken: “The positive trend of the last festivals is continuing.” The number of operations fell slightly to 923, compared to 1010 in 2019. The video surveillance of the festival site has proven to be successful, in 45 cases police operations were triggered or supported accordingly.
With a total of 479 criminal offenses up to and including Saturday, you are moving at the level of the years before the Oktoberfest; Theft was at the top with 134 cases, followed by bodily harm (119 cases, including 17 beer mug fights) and sexual offenses (31 cases, mostly groping and sexual insults, but not a single rape). However, attacks on police officers have increased significantly. There were 22 cases, up from nine in 2019, and nine officers were injured.
The balance of the medical station was extremely positive. “We have seen a 30 percent drop in the number of patients,” said operations manager Michel Belcijan from the Aicher Ambulanz Union. A total of 2,603 patients were looked after in the first week, compared to 3,577 in 2019. Most of these were alcohol-related failures, with the number of drunk patients falling again compared to previous years.
There is also mulled wine now
Surgical emergencies came second, mostly due to injuries to the feet. The big innovation at this Oktoberfest, the mobile computer tomograph, was used a total of 80 times, and the additional night shift has apparently also proved its worth: “The monitoring beds were well occupied every day,” says Belcijan, “so far they have saved almost a hundred unnecessary hospital admissions a.”
Baumgärtner also gave a cautious all-clear on another, crucial health issue for the time being: “Neither with the security services, nor with the police, the medical service, with the showmen or with the gastronomic establishments are there any restrictions or failures due to Corona.” The fears turned out to be unfounded – at least until the end of the first week.
Another major concern this year was energy consumption. As far as electricity is concerned, it was 1.46 percent more in the first half of the Oktoberfest than three years ago. Gas consumption, on the other hand, fell by 13 percent, which is probably mainly due to the Oktoberfest hosts not using radiant heaters in the beer gardens.
If it gets too cold on the festival grounds during the coming Oktoberfest week, you can also keep warm with mulled wine. According to Baumgärtner, it can now be sold at four places on the festival grounds: “We are supporting those market merchants who normally offer ice cream and are now suffering particularly from the weather.”