Despite the cancellation of the Oktoberfest, the Munich residents should get their beer and chicken at the Oktoberfest – possibly even with brass music. Instead of the burst Oktoberfest start on September 19, restaurants in the city center and innkeepers want to launch a mini version, with Oktoberfest beer, pretzels, Hendl and Haxn.
Feeling: It's Oktoberfest time now
This "Wirtshauswiesn" ties in with the origins of the Oktoberfest a good 200 years ago, says the spokesman for the Munich city innkeeper, Gregor Lemke. "When the first Oktoberfest took place in 1810, there were no tents. There were no such catering options on the Theresienwiese. The people then moved to the city, to the taverns. We have an analogy to the tavern."
The point is to show "that we can not get down" – and that a little feeling arises: Now is Oktoberfest time.
Oktoberfest replacement: Specifications for the corona crisis
The Wirtshauswiesn brand is already protected. The implementation is still being worked on. "We are still in the discovery phase," says Lemke. "We do not yet know the political guidelines for the Corona crisis, which will take effect at the end of September."
There will certainly not be a party atmosphere with dancing on the benches – bad cards for those who want to flirt. Default: distance, mask – costume.
A regular said that he would sit down on the Theresienwiese with a box of beer at the Oktoberfest. "We – and also the other colleagues – said to the regular guests: Come to us," says the second Wiesn host spokesman Christian Schottenhamel.
Tavern in Munich
Schottenhamel wants to adjust the times to those of the Oktoberfest tents, music plays there until 10.30 p.m.
The restaurant on Nockherberg does not even get ten percent of the tent space under Corona specifications. It would be 9,500 there, and around 800 at Nockherberg.
Festive mood: "Summer in the city" from the end of July
Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) opened the "Summer in the City". A ferris wheel stands on the Königsplatz, a 90-meter-high chain carousel circles on the Olympic site, where a kind of roller coaster, a bumper car and the stomach-lifting business break dance are set up.
Shooting booths, traditional costumes, cotton candy and gingerbread hearts can be found in various places – but also culture and sport, concerts, cabaret, beach volleyball and table tennis.
Oktoberfest 2020
The hope lies in the next year. Then, Wiesnchef Baumgärtner is confident that everything will be the same again. "I firmly believe that the Wiesn 2021 will take place."