The Wiesn 2024 - peaceful and relaxed 16 days of festivities

6.7 million visitors celebrated together peacefully at the Oktoberfest

According to estimates by the festival management, 6.7 million guests (2023: 7.2 million) came to the Theresienwiese over the 16 days up to and including Sunday, 3 October.Of these, around 430,000 visitors were counted at the Oide Wiesn event (2023: 480,000).  
Clemens Baumgärtner, Head of Labour and Economic Affairs at the Wiesn, said: ‘Oktoberfest was particularly relaxed this year. Despite the high visitor numbers, the number of criminal offences and patients fell. Our security concept worked with the support of the police and fire brigade as well as our partners. I hope that this trend towards a peaceful and quality-conscious festival will continue.’

Most of the international guests came from the USA

Oktoberfest is a regional festival with a high level of international attention. The majority of guests still came from Munich itself or the surrounding area.There were once again a noticeable number of visitors from abroad at the Theresienwiese.Most of the international guests came from the USA, Italy, the United Kingdom, Austria, Poland, France, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands and, for the first time, increasingly from India.To fully immerse themselves in the Oktoberfest universe, guests from overseas like to dress in traditional costume, increasingly in higher-quality styles. The festival organisers, showmen, market traders and innkeepers are very satisfied with how the festival went.

Landlords report 7 million litres of beer sold

The trend towards high-quality enjoyment continued right to the end. The small tents and large Oktoberfest innkeepers reported an increase of around 9 per cent in food. Classic Bavarian specialities continued to be an integral part of a visit to the Wiesn. Chicken remains the unbeaten favourite.
The catering at Oktoberfest follows the social trend towards organic food, regional products or vegetarian and vegan delicacies and offers a wide selection. Demand has stabilised at a constant level.
According to initial estimates by the festival hosts, Oktoberfest guests drank around 7 million litres of beer (2023: 7.2 million). Demand for non-alcoholic beverages remained at the same high level as the previous year. Guests mainly favoured water, apple spritzer and Spezi. The proportion of non-alcoholic beer served remained unchanged at 4 to 5 per cent. The tents were well filled, but not overcrowded, and the atmosphere was mostly relaxed and festive. The busiest days were traditionally the three Saturdays and the middle Sunday (29 September).

Showmen look forward to welcoming many families to the festival site

Official booking and resale portal

Unused reservations can be exchanged or purchased at the original price on the online portal launched by landlords in 2023. This transaction processing ensures a secure purchase and protects against extortionate prices such as those charged on the black market. 21 medium-sized and large catering establishments have opted for the Oktoberfest-Booking.com portal as their solution. The platform reports around 180,000 page views per day (2023: 100,000). More than 660 transactions were processed (2023: 310). Reservations for more than 780 tables for ten people each changed hands (2023: 360).

Street sales

The street vendors reported good business, despite the often inclement weather in the second week. The Mittagswiesn was regularly very busy. Glazed fruit, chocolate hearts with figurines, such as the Münchner Kindl or the angel Aloisius, were in high demand. Roasted almonds and stomach bread are classics that are often bought for the journey home. Candyfloss was also particularly popular on the family days. Bratwurst sausages were a big hit in street sales.

Give me the jugs

The attentive stewards took 98,000 beer mugs (2023: 115,600, 2022: 137,790) from souvenir hunters at the exits of the tents and the festival grounds (projection until the end of the Oktoberfest).

Showmanship

Despite the changeable weather, the operators of the rides were very satisfied and reported a similar number of visitors as last year. The ‘wild’ rides were particularly popular with young people, providing a good pace and an adrenaline rush. On the rainy days, the indoor rides such as the Devil's Wheel and the ghost trains were all the rage. The showmen were particularly pleased about the cross-generational rush of families with children, not only on the two family days and Sundays.

Popular souvenirs to take home

Souvenirs

In terms of souvenirs, felt hearts and badges with snappy sayings were particularly popular with festival guests this year. Small gifts and souvenirs such as pins and fridge magnets were again very popular. Sweatshirts, T-shirts and mugs with the Oktoberfest motif also sold well. The cloth bag with this year's motif was quickly sold out.

Official Oktoberfest souvenirs and information stands from München Tourismus

This year, Munich Tourism once again had three information stands. Local visitors were primarily interested in the location of the new drinking water fountains or individual stands, while guests from abroad asked whether they needed an admission ticket to visit the tent, where they could change money and how best to get from A to B. The new flyers with the site map were well received and helped with orientation on the large festival site. The official Wiesn souvenirs sold very well here.

The Wiesn hit - evergreens and songs from the concert summer

There are now many hits that belong to the Wiesn and are played every year.This year, they are complemented by new additions from the Munich concert summer and the European Football Championship, such as Taylor Swift's ‘Shake it off’, ‘Viva la Vida’ by Coldplay and ‘Major Tom’ by Peter Schilling.

Security is a quality feature of the Wiesn

Security is a quality feature of the Wiesn. The police, fire brigade, first-aid station and all other authorities involved emphasised the excellent cooperation and security partnership with the private security companies. All security authorities praised the level-headedness of the visitors. The controls at the entrances were accepted without any problems. All security staff reported very positive feedback from the guests, who thanked the police, fire brigade and security staff for their presence and felt safe at the Wiesn. ‘It's great that you're here’.
The police, medical service and youth protection officers also emphasised positively that the number of heavily intoxicated minors has continued to fall. The security service and waiters are highly sensitised to the issue. Young visitors were remarkably sensible and responsible. They look out for each other.

Police

The police speak of a harmonious Oktoberfest with declining crime figures (-25.8 per cent). 

Fire brigade

The Oktoberfest 2024 went off without any serious incidents for the fire department. Praise was given to the visitor guidance provided by the announcements during the closure of Hackerbrücke station and the prudent actions of the landlords, who ensured that their tents were closed in good time. The fire brigade retrieved the engagement ring of one lucky couple from a crack. 

First aid station

The Aicher Ambulanz ambulance service speaks of a smooth course of events with a 29 per cent reduction in operations.

Protection of minors

By 6 October, the youth protection service had dealt with a total of six underage drinkers. Seven lost children were looked after and 160 parents were made aware of the ban on pushchairs after 6 p.m. and on Saturdays and public holidays. The stewards were very attentive and took drunk parents with babies and small children to the youth protection centre. It was not necessary to take anyone into custody.

Lost property

By Sunday, 6 October, an estimated 3,500 lost property items had been registered.Compared to last year, this is probably 250 more lost property items. These included 700 wallets, 700 items of clothing, 500 ID cards, 315 mobile phones, 450 bank cards, 150 keys, 300 pairs of glasses/sunglasses, 160 bags, rucksacks and pouches, 60 umbrellas and 45 pieces of jewellery. Around 800 items of lost property were handed over during the Wiesn (extrapolated).

The most curious finds:
16 lederhosen straps, handcuffs made of light metal, five wedding rings, three of which have already been collected again, a dental crunch splint, various pairs of women's shoes whose wearers have presumably got rid of them and switched to bathing slippers - available at the souvenir stands. The trend towards traditional hats, which the souvenir dealers have observed, is also reflected in the unusually high number of head coverings sold.

Electricity, gas, water: the Wiesn's energy consumption

Up until 5 October, the world's largest folk festival was able to run without a hitch thanks to SWM's energy specialists.
As in 2023, the Oktoberfest was supplied with 100 per cent green electricity. The number of customers who also actively purchase M-Ökostrom has remained at the high level of around 65 per cent.
The electricity consumption of 2.8 million kilowatt hours, extrapolated to 16 days, was around 12 per cent higher than the consumption of the Oktoberfest in 2023. At 165,000 cubic metres, gas consumption increased by 19 per cent compared to the previous year, as almost all cooking and heating gas connections were used this year. The medium-sized ‘Münchner Stubn’ did not use gas at all.
Water consumption of around 82,653 cubic metres was lower than in 2023 (-2.18%).
Consumption at the drinking fountains totalled 72 cubic metres (as at 5 October). The most popular drinking fountain was behind the Bräurosl with almost 20 cubic metres of drinking water consumed.

KVR - Food monitoring

The food monitoring organisation carried out a total of 1181 inspections in 396 businesses. The food businesses were inspected several times a day for proper operational, product and personnel hygiene as well as labelling. There were also early inspections of the proper delivery of goods (functional refrigeration and cleanliness). Deficiencies in operational and product hygiene as well as internal company controls were rectified immediately. Samples were taken of foodstuffs and consumer goods. Complaints received were investigated and the reported deficiencies, which were always minor, were rectified immediately.
The district administration department reports that a very high standard of hygiene has been established at the Wiesn.

Health department

The health department was very satisfied with drinking water hygiene, jug flushing hygiene and cleanliness in public areas. This continued the successful trend of previous years. The water at the drinking water fountains is flawless.

TÜV

Despite the tragic accident at the Olympic loop and the associated delays, the tents, stalls and rides were set up and the necessary safety inspections carried out within the planned timeframe this year.Together with the Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulations, tents and rides were repeatedly spot-checked for compliance with operating regulations, among other things.No notable offences were found. From a technical safety perspective, the Wiesn was calm and uneventful.

Building department - Street cleaning

The daily cleaning of the festival site went without a hitch for the street cleaning team. An electric vehicle and a small sweeper were also used on the festival site during the day, as far as the flow of visitors allowed. In addition, the areas in front of the Bavaria statue were cleaned once or twice a day on behalf of the festival management.
In the first week up to and including Friday, a total of 28 tonnes of rubbish and rubbish deposits were produced as part of the overall cleaning of the festival streets (2023: 22 tonnes). No data is available for the second half of the year; no major changes in the amount of rubbish were observed.

Waste management company

By 4 October, 802 tonnes of waste had been disposed of (2023: 820). Since this year, the waste management company has also taken over the disposal of mixed broken glass.

MVG

MVG reports slightly fewer passengers than last year, but on 3 October passenger numbers increased significantly again due to the weather.
The Theresienwiese and Goetheplatz stations had to be closed again and again for short periods due to the large crowds at the evening departure, but this did not cause any further problems. The passengers were in a good mood and remained largely peaceful.

Commitment from all involved

All departments in the Service Centre did a great job this year. The festival management would like to thank all colleagues and all Wiesn visitors for the smooth and excellent cooperation!