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"Roller-Coaster" Oktoberfest 2025 Closes in Munich After Overcrowding and Bomb Scare

Published on: 06 October 2025

Germany's 'roller-coaster' Oktoberfest draws to a close

Numerous visitors flock to the Oktoberfest grounds in the morning for the opening ceremony. Photo: Matthias Balk/dpa.

The 190th Oktoberfest beer festival is drawing to a close in the southern German city of Munich on Sunday.

"For me, it was a roller coaster Wiesn," Munich's economic adviser Christian Scharpf told dpa, using a local term for the world-famous cultural event. Scharpf's first year as Oktoberfest chief has been a turbulent one, he said.

"A dream start with sunny record temperatures and a smooth first week. Then came the overcrowding situation on the middle Saturday of the Wiesn and the bomb threat on Wednesday, which challenged us greatly," he said.

Oktoberfest 2025 is likely to go down in history for several reasons. On two separate days, the entire Oktoberfest grounds had to be closed due to overcrowding.

One day was almost completely lost because the Theresienwiese venue was searched for hours following a bomb threat and remained closed - and the day of the tapping was the hottest Oktoberfest day ever at 31 degrees Celsius.

"It was important that all parties worked hand in hand, and we managed to reopen at 5:30 pm," Scharpf said about the reopening after the bomb threat. "The most beautiful experience for me was feeling that 'now more than ever' spirit. People returned to the Wiesn immediately after the closure was lifted and celebrated with a good feeling."

There were 300,000 people alone in the late afternoon of Friday, which was a national holiday, German Unity Day, when the grounds had to be closed for the second time this year due to overcrowding.

Scharpf plans to take stock on Sunday and also announce how many visitors attended the Oktoberfest. According to estimates by the festival management, 3.5 million guests had arrived by the halfway point after one week, compared to 3.6 million people last year.

Former Munich mayor Christian Ude summed up the season on Facebook in a post in the Bavarian dialect: "Always the fuss with the Oktoberfest: First too hot, then too many people, then none at all."

Scharpf emphasized: "The super Wiesn atmosphere and the great party mood among the people characterized the festival throughout."

[SRC] https://www.dailyfinland.fi/europe/45561/Germanys-roller-coaster-Oktoberfest-draws-to-a-close

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