Overview
- The 191st Oktoberfest opens Saturday, Sept. 19 and runs to Oct. 4, and city organisers say roughly 600 police plus thousands of private security staff will patrol the fenced Theresienwiese to manage the expected millions of visitors.
- Munich has installed more than 50 cameras with AI analysis that produce heatmaps to spot growing crowds in real time and trigger alarms for faster intervention.
- A new on-site coordination centre will centralise crowdspotters, police, fire and medical teams and use three security rings, mobile vehicle barriers and stricter bag rules to control flows and access.
- Many tents will support the SafeNow app for on‑demand security responses, organisers published a public visitor barometer to steer arrivals, and reservation times were changed to reduce simultaneous crowd movement.
- The city is also preparing to enforce its EU trademark on 'Oktoberfest' through licensing and social-media monitoring while organisers face public questions over high tent prices and a mayoral pause at the 1980 memorial during the brewer procession.