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Oktoberfest is the largest and most intense beer festival held annually in Germany.

Over the past 210 years, Oktoberfest has been cancelled just 24 times, for reasons like cholera outbreaks or war.

In the case of 2020, the pandemic got in the way of festivities.

In the before times it attracted millions of tourists to Munich every year to eat and drink far too much and all in the spirit of celebrating Bavarian Prince Ludwig and his marriage Princess Therese, of Saxony-Hildburghausen back in 1810.

Nah, not really. While that’s how the festival got its start, it’s all about the beer these days.

Those tourist numbers, and the money they bring with them, are clearly very tempting because a few businessmen started putting plans together to hold a rival event in Dubai.

The organisers of the original Oktoberfest want nothing to do with this breakaway festival plan.

As per CNN, the plan is to emulate Munich’s Oktoberfest at the Dubai Marina from October 2021 until 2022:

“Oktoberfest in Dubai” is promoted by Charles Blume, who helps organise the Berlin Christmas market, and is set to feature dozens of beer tents, food stands, attractions and rides. The location hosts up to 120,000 guests and there will be “no restrictions to traditional Bavarian dress, beer, music or sale and consumption of foods of any kind.”

The Germans are not pleased and have been criticising the event on social media.

The original Oktoberfest organisers have put as much distance between themselves and the rival event as possible, making it very clear that the original event will remain in Bavaria.

Here’s some of what the original organisers said in a statement:

“Recently, media in German-speaking countries have been reporting intensively on plans by a private individual to hold an Oktoberfest in Dubai”.

“Various headlines linguistically suggest that the Munich Oktoberfest is actually being relocated to Dubai, is moving there, or is taking place in the desert this year due to a possible cancellation.

“The Oktoberfest is a Munich original and takes place exclusively in Munich,” a spokesperson for the Department of Labor and Economic Affairs of the City of Munich, which organises the event, said in a statement.

“The plans that have now become known are not being pursued by the organisers of the event in Dubai either on behalf of or with the consent of the City of Munich.”

Now that it’s all cleared up, folks in Munich can prepare their beer hands.

Although, the pandemic might put this years’ festival on pause again.

So far though, organisers have set a date of September 18 as the start of the two-week festival.

[source:cnn]