Munich’s Oktoberfest opened on 19 September 2026 with the traditional tapping of the first keg inside the Schottenhamel tent on the Theresienwiese fairground. The city’s mayor, Dominik Krause, carried out the ceremony at midday, calling out the customary cry of “O’zapft is!” to mark that the beer was flowing and that the festival had formally begun. Twelve cannon shots fired from the nearby Bavaria monument carried the signal across the grounds and cued the tents to begin serving.
The 2026 edition is the 191st staging of the event and is scheduled to run for sixteen days. Citing the Bavarian broadcaster BR, reports noted that around 6.5 million people attended the previous year’s festival, a turnout that places the Wiesn among the largest public gatherings in Europe. Warm weather greeted the opening, with temperatures climbing just above 20 degrees Celsius under clear skies as visitors filled the fairground.
The day began with a procession through central Munich. About 1,000 participants, among them tent landlords, brewery representatives, musicians and festival staff, travelled to the fairground in decorated horse-drawn carriages and wagons. The parade is a fixture of the opening and draws spectators along its route through the city before the first measures of beer are poured.
Prices at the 2026 festival reflected the steady increases seen in recent years. A Maß, the one-litre serving that is standard at Oktoberfest, cost between 14.80 and 15.90 euros depending on the tent. A large pretzel, another staple of the grounds, was priced at roughly 5 to 6 euros. The figures were set out ahead of the opening and shaped how millions of visitors planned their spending across the sixteen days.
The festival is held each year on the Theresienwiese, an open expanse close to the centre of Munich that fills with beer tents, fairground rides and food stalls for the length of the run. Over its history it has grown from a local Bavarian celebration into an international draw, pulling visitors from across Germany and well beyond its borders. With the first keg tapped and the tents open, the 2026 Oktoberfest settled into a schedule that carries it into early October.
