A litre of beer has never cost so much at Munich’s Oktoberfest. But that is not deterring the crowds, whose willingness to shell out €14.40 on a Maß of pilsener offers vital clues about consumer confidence in Europe’s largest economy.
Jörg Biebernick, chief executive of Paulaner, one of Germany’s largest breweries, learnt the hard way how big the Oktoberfest is this year. He tried to get a table for a group of friends on a recent evening and was told he had no chance. “The tents are all fully booked,” he said. “And this despite inflation.”
Biebernick was speaking in the Paulaner tent, a vast hall in Munich’s Theresienwiese fairground that daily dispenses thousands of litres of beer to revellers, many of them clad in lederhosen and dirndls. By midday tables were already filling up and the oompah bands were in full throttle.