NEIN

Munich Cancels Oktoberfest Beer and Folk Party

The loss of the annual festival of Bavarian cheer will hit the German region hard.

With depressing inevitability, Germany’s biggest annual party, Munich’s celebrated Oktoberfest folk and beer festival, has been canceled for the first time since World War II. “We agreed that the risk is simply too great,” Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder said at a news conference Tuesday. “We are living in different times and living with corona means living carefully.” The event, previously scheduled to have taken place between Sept. 19 and Oct. 4, would have brought in some $1.3 billion to the local economy. Last year saw over 6 million visitors gather in the city, where they downed some 7.3 million liters of beer, a slight decline from the previous year’s 7.5 million liters.