Once the numbers were on the table, discussions began. Because the beer festival at Munich’s Oktoberfest will cost between €12.60 and €14.90 this year, a good six percent more than last year. In 2022, the maximum price was 13.80 euros. Visitors also need to dig deeper in their pockets for non-alcoholic beverages. Average prices per liter are, for example, 10.04 euros for table water (2022: 9.67 euros) and 11.65 euros for Spezi (2022: 10.85 euros).
BR24 reports LIVE from Munich from 12h00 onwards. We asked Deputy Spokesperson for the Wiesn hosts Christian Schottenmale and Wiesn Councilor Anja Berger (Greens) about the evolution of beer prices at Oktoberfest 2023.
Owners set prices
Drink prices are set by the innkeepers and then checked by the City of Munich for “appropriateness”. The basis for this is the prices of other large gastronomic establishments in the city. Beer prices are currently between €7.10 and €12.20 per liter of light beer.
Significantly higher total costs
Homeowners justify the increase with rising purchase prices, high energy costs and inflation. Employees would also have to earn more to cope with the rising cost of living. Due to higher wage settlements in the construction industry and expensive building materials, construction of Oktoberfest tents is also becoming significantly more expensive, according to another argument from innkeepers.
More BioHendl on the Wiesn
This also impacts the price of chicken, especially when it comes to organic products. For the first time this year, the Paulaner marquee wants to offer its chicken exclusively as an organic product and charge 20.50 euros for it. This means that visitors have to pay five to six euros more than for a conventional chicken in one of the other marquees.
Demand remains even with high prices
Of course, a visit to the Wiesn has never been cheaper, and that apparently hasn’t affected demand. At Wiesn 2019, for example – the last one before Corona – visitors consumed nearly 435,000 chickens and drank seven million liters of beer.
At noon, we’ll talk about these developments with Christian Schottenmale, Deputy Spokesperson for the Wiesn hosts, and Wiesn City Councilor Anja Berger (Greens).
With information from the dpa