After a two-year hiatus due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Germany’s iconic Oktoberfest beer festival will return to Munich this year. The Mayor of the city recently announced this. According to reports, the festival will begin on September 17 and run through October 3.
During a press conference, Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter stated that the festival will be held without any conditions or restrictions, which means no social distancing, face masks, or vaccine passes will be required.
In recent years, the festival has attracted over six million visitors. According to reports, it began in 1880 for the wedding of Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen; two years later, beer tents were added, and it went on to become Germany’s largest tourist event.
Following the outbreak of COVID, the festival was reportedly canceled in 2020 for the first time since World War II. Normally held between September and October, the festival was forced to be canceled again in 2021 due to Germany’s battle with the deadly COVID virus.
In response to this development, the Mayor stated that pandemic conditions have changed since then, and that the healthcare system is no longer under pressure from the Coronavirus.
He went on to say that he hopes the situation does not worsen in the autumn and that they do not have to cancel the festival at the last minute.
According to reports, Germany has lifted most COVID-related restrictions, including the requirement to wear face masks in schools and shops, and plans to implement a vaccine mandate have also been scrapped.
In addition, regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, Reiter stated that canceling the Oktoberfest due to the war could not be justified, and he expressed his sympathies to Ukraine and Munich’s twin city Kyiv. He also stated that due to the war, no one knows what the situation will be in the autumn.