The City of Munich has today reached a decision on the safety concept for this year’s instalment of the Oktoberfest. Contrary to what everyone was expecting until a few days ago, and what one of the mayors of the city, Josef Schmid (CSU), and the police were asking for, there will be no additional mobile fencing system installed, the city decided today, July 5, 2016 munchen.de reports. The additional part of the fence would make it possible to fence-in almost the whole Oktoberfest grounds at the Theresienwiese in order to prevent too many people to attend the beer festival. The issue caused a dispute between Munich’s great coalition partners at the City Hall.
As for additional safety measures for the festival, it has been decided to employ additional security personnel. The 100 more people in charge of safety and security are going to cost the city additional €2.8 million. There are going to be more controls of handbags and rucksacks at the entrance, but no general ban on them. The city’s official Facebook page and the official Twitter account are going to be used to inform the general public if the festival grounds are overcrowded.
Over 6 million beer loving visitors are expected at the 183rd instalment of the traditional Bavarian beer festival in 2016. This year the Oktoberfest is set to take place at the Theresienwiese from Saturday, September 17 until Monday, October 3. If you are planning to visit the festival this year, you’ll find information on the most important things to know in advance by following the link to our How to Oktoberfest 2016 post.
