The festival grounds will also be very crowded on the second Sunday of the Oktoberfest. Drug users have to pay tens of thousands of euros in security deposits. The paramedics are reporting more patients than last year.
The city points out on its social media channels, including in its Instagram story, that there is currently a large crowd at the Oidn Wiesn and warns: “Please come at a later date”.
A case from Friday night shows that the pickpocket investigators from Portugal, Cologne and Munich also keep an eye on the festival guests when roaming the Oktoberfest outside of their core competence: The police noticed a man who was standing in front of the wine tent close to the women waiting there. The 34-year-old from the Starnberg district then slid his hand down the long back of a young woman, touched her buttocks and grabbed her twice. After the complaint is filed, he will probably find out that the justice system does not treat gropers squeamishly.
It seems a bit strange when the boyfriend can track the girlfriend's cell phone and therefore always know where she is. For a 27-year-old Munich woman and her two friends, however, it was a blessing on Friday evening. The young women wanted to take a spin at Techno Power and first hand over their handbags to be on the safe side. A man wearing a similar T-shirt to the employees offered to hold the bags. When the ride stopped again, the trio landed abruptly on the ground: "Employees" and handbags had disappeared. It's a good thing that the 27-year-old had her boyfriend with her and he was able to track her cell phone in the stolen bag. He chased the man and held him until police arrived. The 33-year-old, who was not only carrying women's handbags but also had a blood alcohol level of two, was arrested and taken into custody the next day.
There are two types of intoxication at the Oktoberfest: one is based on the liquefied supply of hops and malt and is considered legal, the other occurs after powder consumption and falls into the punishable drug category. Two Oktoberfest visitors now also know the latter, as they stuck their noses too deep into the coke powder at the Oktoberfest next to the Bavaria, commonly known as the Kotzhügel. One of them, a 50-year-old Pole, probably didn't notice on Friday afternoon that live images from the hill in question were being streamed to the Wiesnwache headquarters. And so the officers could see on the screens how the man laid out several lines of white powder on the display of his cell phone. He immediately explained to the emergency services that the cocaine belonged to him. He also had more material in his pocket. The man works in the logistics industry and apparently earns quite well. At least, according to the criminal complaint, the police officers collected a security deposit of 26,000 euros before the Pole was released.
Just 20 minutes later, the police were dealing with a "snowfall" on the same hill: a 32-year-old Brit was preparing a line when the police approached him and he immediately dropped the white powder. Cost here: 12,400 euros.
A tour group from the Philippines was heading from Milan to Munich for the Oktoberfest on Sunday morning when their bus left the road and overturned. Two people died in the accident on Autobahn 96 near Buchloe in Ostallgäu, and numerous others were injured, some of them seriously.
This year's open-air concert ends with the Bavarian anthem, accompanied by a number of colorful balloons rising into the bright blue sky. Beforehand, a few people waved the baton: Wiesn city councilor Anja Berger (Greens), this year's winner of the Wiesn innkeepers' honorary award, guest guide Georg Reichlmayr, Jörg Lehmann, the new Hofbräu brewery director, Hanna Sammüller, head of the district administration department, and at the grand finale also Dominik Krause, for the first time in his role as mayor.
A drunk Oktoberfest visitor from Starnberg vomited in a taxi and then threw a log at the taxi driver in an argument about the cleaning costs. The 29-year-old had previously threatened the taxi driver with an ax. The 29-year-old is now being investigated.
Eight days of Oktoberfest - and the most strenuous for the paramedics was yesterday's middle Oktoberfest Saturday. They cared for 858 patients that day alone, from morning to midnight. In total, the Aicher medical service cared for 4,243 patients, seven percent more than at the same time last year.
Most patients (35 percent) were treated for “alcohol-related complaints,” as the medical service reports in its interim report. Almost as many (32 percent) had cuts, lacerations, bruises or fractures. 430 emergency services work for the medical service during the Oktoberfest, including 36 doctors.
Around 300 brass musicians gathered at the foot of the Bavaria for the traditional outdoor concert on the second Sunday of the Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest director Christian Scharpf conducts the “Deutschmeister Regimental March” and the audience sings along. Before that, however, host spokesman Peter Inselkammer has his say. And with a view to the pending court decision on the allocation of tents, he is using it to once again point out the traditions at the Oktoberfest. According to Inselkammer, he hopes that the Bavarian Supreme Court will “rule in favor of the Oktoberfest” on October 13th.
The city as well as the fire brigade, police and paramedics draw a largely positive conclusion at halftime of the Oktoberfest. So far 3.8 million people have come to Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest boss Christian Scharpf is satisfied with the revised security concept.
Due to an operation by the fire brigade, the P7 entrance to the Oktoberfest grounds was closed in the morning. The reason was a burning cardboard trash compactor. The fire has now been extinguished and entrance P7 has reopened to Oktoberfest visitors.
The reason why there are hardly any trash cans at the Oktoberfest is the Oktoberfest attack, in which a right-wing extremist killed 12 people in 1980. The perpetrator hid the bomb in a trash can. In response, the city then abolished trash cans on the festival grounds.
