At the end of the Munich Oktoberfest, the city looks back on 16 days of exuberant celebrations. The Oktoberfest hosts are satisfied. Only the way in which the enormous influx of visitors was dealt with was the subject of criticism.
At the end of the 190th Oktoberfest in Munich, the city drew an overall positive balance. Around 6.5 million people visited the "Wiesn" this year - slightly fewer than in 2024, when 6.7 million guests were counted. Oktoberfest boss Christian Scharpf (SPD) spoke of a "rollercoaster Wiesn" at the annual press conference; Oktoberfest started with a record temperature of 30.7 degrees. On the second "Wiesn" Saturday, the grounds had to be temporarily closed for the first time due to overcrowding - and on October 1, a bomb threat led to a further closure until the evening. A year that will go down in history.
Even though the "Wiesn" had its ups and downs, the festival management, innkeepers, showmen and market traders were satisfied - despite the small decline in visitor numbers. The large festival tents in particular were able to increase their food sales - by up to six percent, smaller establishments by up to four percent.
There was a slight decline in beer consumption: instead of seven million liters in the previous year, "only" around 6.5 million were served this time. On the other hand, sales of non-alcoholic beer rose by six to ten percent, depending on the tent.
October 3 was by far the day with the most visitors - the grounds even had to be closed on "German Unity Day" due to the threat of overcrowding. On average, 200,000 to 250,000 visitors came to the festival grounds on weekdays. Around a fifth of the guests came from abroad, mainly from the USA, Italy, the UK, Austria, Poland, Spain, France, India and Sweden.
The city attributes the decline in visitor numbers primarily to the temporary closure of the "Wiesn" on Wednesday, October 1, when the festival could only begin after a delay of several hours following a bomb threat.
