Introduction to Oktoberfest Chaos
Halfway to Oktoberfest, which runs in Munich from September 20 to October 5, questions about crowd control have arisen after the entrances to the festival site were closed for around 30 minutes on Saturday. A loudspeaker announcement in German asked visitors to leave the festival without explanation, leading to additional confusion.
Visitor Experiences
Some visitors later complained on social media about feeling trapped in the crowd. "It was close to mass panic," wrote a woman on Instagram, saying that she feared being "kicked and knocked to death." Another described the situation as "extremely dangerous," with people screaming and crying. Many Oktoberfest visitors reported bottlenecks, with some unable to move in any direction.
Incident Explanation
According to reports, two visitors had to be treated for panic attacks, but there were no injuries. "It was not predictable that everything would fill up so quickly," said event manager Christian Scharpf. The tents in the Oktoberfest work in two layers: the daily layer and the evening layer, with the switch usually taking place at 5 p.m. The bottlenecks were caused by too many people trying to enter and leave the tents at the same time.
Temporary Closure
Around 300,000 visitors were at the Theresienwiese Festival site around 5:00 p.m. Therefore, the entrances were temporarily closed until visitors who were already on site had found their new places in the tents. The U-Bahnen from the city center did not stop at the Theresienwiese station during the closure, and the police made an announcement on social media: "Please avoid the Oktoberfest at this time."
Visitor Numbers and Sales
Despite the overcrowding, the number of visitors has decreased slightly compared to the turnout for the same period of the previous year. The festival organizers estimate that around 3.5 million visitors had visited Oktoberfest until last Sunday, down from 3.6 million last year. Beer consumption has also been below last year’s level, possibly due to the high cost of a mass (a 1-liter cup), which costs between €14.50 and €15.80.
Shift in Drink Preferences
On the other hand, significantly more alcohol-free drinks were consumed, especially water, with a 10% increase compared to 2024. Water was even sold out in some stands. The organizers suspect that this is due to the warm weather, with temperatures reaching 30.7 degrees Celsius on the first weekend of the festival, the highest since recordings began in 1879.
Crimes and Incidents
At the weekend, the Munich police reported 414 crimes, compared to 317 in the same period of the previous year and 479 in 2023. So far, officials have reacted to 833 incidents, which is less than in 2024 with 901 incidents. Many of these were reports of physical attacks, disorganized behavior, or disputes. The number of sexual crimes corresponds to previous years, with 33 reports, mostly containing sexual harassment or secretly photographed women’s skirts.
Music Trends
According to the organizers, a clear hit at this year’s Oktoberfest has not yet appeared, but the "wobbly contact" of the Bavarian singer Oimara is very often played in the festival tents. The most popular line to sing along to is "if I were a piece of furniture, I would be a lamp from the 70s."
