New Saturday regulations at the Oktoberfest

Toni Roiderer, speaker of the tent owners, has requested all visitors: Do not arrive before 8 am on the Saturdays!

Due to the huge crowds milling around the tents in the early morning hours the city is considering opening the tents later. It doesn't say so in the article (seriously bad journalism, not SZ standard at all) but the tents cannot start operating until the deliveries have arrived and the kitchens, toilets and booths have been restocked. If the tents are surrounded by people waiting for the gates to open the trucks cannot get through in time for them to be replenished.

This year, the tents will open at 9 am as usual but (I don't quite get the logic here) for security reasons the main entrances will remain closed, you have to use the side entrances. Possibly because the crowds waiting in front of the main entrances spill into the main thoroughfare and obstruct the foot traffic. Now, these crowds will be restricted to the sometimes narrow spaces between the tents.

The whole fest is more of a nightmare every year. Between the crowds, the stupid hats and the increasing appearance of people in stupid fasching costumes, they should start calling it "oktoberzirkus".

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that there was a meeting yesterday and confirms my assumption: The deliveries can't get through the crowds on Saturday mornings, the risk of injuries is too high, people faint in the crowds and have to be hauled out by the paramedics. There will be security guards trying to keep the early morning drinkers at bay, if this is not sufficient then opening times will be changed next year.

The key is to stay open later at night, not open later in the morning.

If the tents close at 3am then few will be arriving at 7am to start again.

Also, this adds a "premium" seating time of 11pm which would cost more and could pay for the extra security, etc.

not very good idea.

They could cut down on the crowds by charging admission. I understand such a policy would create logistical problems of its own, but if you secure the perimeters of the festival in order to check tickets or bracelets or whatever, you could also keep people off the grounds until you want them.

Toni Roiderer is only acting all concerned now becasue the council have treatened them with a 10 AM opening time if they don't keep the early crowds under control.
If they really want to dampen down the rush to get there early, they should increase the number of tents onto the southern half of the festival area.

Don't think that would work at all as the proportion of people doing 2 days in a row would be fairly small in the grand scheme of things.

Increasing the number of tents would work for the first couple of years, but the problem would raise its head again as those who stopped going started to come back.

I'd be in favour of the previous suggestion of putting a perimeter up and charging admission. More than that though I would be in favour of putting a mandatory over-21 age limit on the tents with 2 days exception to allow for families. And of course the suggestion from a few years ago of closing the Brenner Pass. Yes, we've been discussing exactly the same thing for years.

you mean over 18 age limit ...we`re in Europe where the youngs are consider adults at 18 ...not like americans at 21 ...whats the deal with 21 anyway ...are they slower or what?

No, I meant over 21 as I wrote.

The solution to this is to add a few more tents in the ample space they have at the south end of the grounds. Even on weekdays it would be nice if there was some more space. People don't get to the tents at 8am on a Saturday morning cause it's fun - they do it because if they don't they will not get in for the rest of the day.

Overcrowding is the problem and can be solved with more tents.

Or putting up the prices???

Don't forget the plans for another public transport line to carry the even more visitors these extra tents will attract.

they do that anyway and it doesn't stop over-crowding.

which plans are those?