Germany’s Oktoberfest cancelled due to coronavirus

If you had any plans to head for a litre or two of the world’s best beer at the world’s most famous beer festival this month, you’d better get your flights refunded.

Munich’s Oktoberfest has become the latest victim of Covid-19.

Scheduled to start on Sept 19 and run for over two weeks, the world’s biggest beer festival will not happen this year, reports Deutsche Welle.

Oktoberfest is a folk festival running for 18 days, with more than seven million people from around the world attending the event every year.

Bavaria’s state premier has declared the festival will not take place this year.

“Based on the current situation, I cannot imagine that such a large event would even be possible,” he told journalists. He added that he and the mayor of Munich had jointly made the final decision to call it off.

Oktoberfest vendors floated the idea of holding a mini-Oktoberfest, one that would only be open for locals in Munich and the surrounding region. That suggestion failed to gather steam with Munich city officials, who dismissed the idea.

Every year, drinkers quaff nearly eight million litres of beer in numerous large and small tents with seating for around 100,00 revellers. That’s a lot of beer that will now have to be disposed of somehow.

Worldwide, from music festivals to sporting events, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a wave of unprecedented major event cancellations.

Glastonbury, the largest green-field music festival in the world, is a 5-day festival held in Somerset, England, every year.

It was due to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2020 with headliners including Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar, but was cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and went virtual instead.