Similar to the end of the Passion Play in Oberammergau on Sunday, one would also like to comment here: It is done! The 187th Oktoberfest in Munich closed its doors on Monday evening. Time for innkeepers and staff to light a sparkler.
The waiters then celebrate with the guests, like here at the traditional farewell party in the Hofbräuzelt – a mixture of melancholy that the Oktoberfest is now over and joy that the 17 days of emergency have now been overcome.
Good weather was largely non-existent this year: According to the festival management, around 5.7 million visitors came to the first Oktoberfest after a two-year Corona break when it was wet and cold – around half a million fewer than at the last Oktoberfest before the pandemic in 2019. At that time it was 6.3 million.
Even if one or the other turnover may not have reached the level of 2019 due to the lower number of visitors, the relief and joy is written all over the faces of the waitresses.
The weather was the main obstacle, said festival director Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU) at the end of the festival on Monday. He spoke of the worst Oktoberfest weather in 20 years. Nevertheless, the festival attracted a relaxed, cheerful and young audience. “The Wiesn is back.” He did not see Corona, money worries or the war in Ukraine as the primary reasons for the decline in visitors.
The celebrations continued until the last minute. The police not only had difficult cases to solve, but also experienced some funny things, as the officers regularly tweeted.
Fewer guests also drank less beer: 5.6 million liters went over the bar, which, by the way, was served for the first time this year by a woman. In comparison: In 2019, 7.3 million liters were poured. Because of the weather, the festival management had allowed mulled wine to be served, but it was only moderately popular.
But after 17 days of celebration, it’s over – nobody would be able to endure a permanent Oktoberfest, emphasizes the sociologist Thorsten Benkel. And at the end, the employees of the large and small festival tents also dance on the beer benches.
As always, the celebrities celebrated in the tents – among them actor Arnold Schwarzenegger with his girlfriend and sons, Elyas M’Barek and his wife Jessica, Ludwig Prince of Bavaria, Thomas Gottschalk and Lothar Matthäus. But for them, too, it was over on the Day of German Unity, the bonus day every few years. Now the Theresienwiese is being swept, cleaned up and dismantled.