EU border controls stem full attendance at Germany's Oktoberfest
16-day event wraps up with 400,000 fewer visitors but crime rate decreased
Attendance slipped at the world’s biggest beer party, the annual Oktoberfest in Germany, as border controls imposed to stem the flow of refugees complicated rail travel, organisers said on Sunday.
As the 16-day event wrapped up in the southern city of Munich, Oktoberfest chief Josef Schmid told reporters that damp, cool weather had led some 400,000 fewer visitors to attend this year’s festival.
The total fell to 5.9 million revellers, the lowest level since 2009.
Schmid said the checks at the frontier to manage a record migrant influx had likely also kept some tourists from neighbouring countries from travelling to Munich, national news agency DPA reported.
Beer consumption fell as well, to 1.9 million gallons, or 400,000 large glass mugs fewer than in 2014.
But crime was also down, with police recording nine percent fewer mobilisations this year.
Local authorities were at pains to keep beer-drinking partygoers and refugees apart, particularly at Munich’s main railway station where some 20,000 refugees arrived on each of the first two weekends of September.