The morning after · October 2026

After
Wiesn

Sixteen days, 7.4 million visits, 6.7 million litres of beer. Then it is over, and Munich starts coughing. What did Oktoberfest cost, who made the money, and who picks up the tab?

Wiesn is what locals call Oktoberfest.

7.4mvisits, a record
€1.6bnrevenue, according to the City of Munich
€60mcost of the “Wiesn flu”, mid estimate
A packed crowd inside a beer tent, black and white
Shoulder to shoulder, five and a half hours at a time.
1 · Health

What does the Wiesn flu cost?

Every year Munich falls ill after the festival. Locals call it the Wiesn flu. About 2.7 million different people came, and eight in ten spent hours shoulder to shoulder in a beer tent. Nobody measures how many catch something there, so this is an estimate.

The chain of infection
  • Different people at the festival2.70 m
  • Go into a tent2.13 m
  • Catch an infection there439,000
  • of whom take it home, from Garmisch to New Zealand153,000
  • Infect others at home and at work+ 263,000
  • Genuinely additional illness196,000
  • Signed off work31,000
  • Working days lost169,000
Cost worldwide€59.3 m

Of this, €41.7 m falls on the Munich region. Lost work accounts for €54.4 m, doctors and medicine for €4.9 m. Depending on the assumptions, the range runs from €2 m to €900 m.

2 · Money

Who earns the €1.6 billion?

Only a good third of the money stays on the festival ground. Most of it lands in hotels, restaurants, shops and taxis across the city. These are rough estimates, because real takings are not public.

Chalkboard: grilled fish 12.50 euros, fish and chips 6.50 euros
Price board, 2018.
Restaurants and bars in the city
€358 m
Hotels and landlords
€330 m
Showmen, stallholders, street food
€317 m
Beer tent landlords
€300 m
Retail and traditional dress
€220 m
Taxis, ride services, public transport
€72 m

About 12% of revenue is left as pre-tax profit, roughly €190 m in total. Hotels are the biggest winners with about €75 m. Rooms cost around three times the usual rate.

3 · Price

What is in a litre of beer?

A Maß, the one-litre mug, cost €15.61 on average in 2026.

  • Tent, staff, music, security and profit€8.55
  • VAT€2.49
  • Waiting staff’s share€1.30
  • Turnover rent to the city€1.02
  • The beer itself, wholesale€2.25

Purchase price, rent and staff share are estimates.

4 · Balance

Winners and losers

A few earn a lot, and many pay a little. That is no accusation. It is the distribution you see when you put both lists side by side.

A dirndl and a freshly poured litre of beer, no face
One litre earns the waitress about €1.30.
Winners
  • Hotels and landlordsAbout €75 m profit. A three-star room cost €324 a night at the median.
  • Tent landlordsAbout €40 m between some 40 tents.
  • Waiting staffMostly €5,000 to €10,000 in 16 days, for about 200 hours of work and no fixed wage.
  • The taxmanAbout €170 m in VAT alone.
Losers
  • Employers and colleaguesThe Wiesn flu costs them about €54 m in lost work.
  • Health insurers and hospitals8,409 patients at the on-site medical service, four in ten for alcohol alone.
  • Bavarian taxpayersAbout 600 police officers and 1,851 call-outs. The police send no bill.
  • The climateAn estimated 300,000 tonnes of CO₂ from travel, mostly flights.

Neither: the City of Munich. By law it may not make a profit on the festival.

5 · Result

The bottom line

About €190 m in profit for a few, about €190 m in costs for the many. For the region that is not a loss. It is a shift, and on top of it about €400 m of added value stays in the region.

Added value for the region
€400 m
Private profits
€188 m
Costs borne by others
€187 m

Costs borne by others: Wiesn flu €59 m; police, hospitals and alcohol-related costs €38 m; CO₂ from travel €90 m (very rough).

6 · Bold guesses

What if

Some things cannot be measured, only sketched on a beer mat. Each sum states its assumption. None is a forecast.

A hand holding a smartphone, photographing the tent ceiling
The world is watching.
If the festival were a company
€100 m a day

€1.6 bn in 16 days is about €7.7 m per opening hour.

If the city were allowed to earn
€60 m

One euro extra per litre, €5 entry per visit and a 5% bed tax. Almost exactly the cost of the Wiesn flu.

If the festival were cancelled
minus €200 to 300 m

As in 2020 and 2021. The region would lose about €400 m of added value and save €100 to 190 m in follow-on costs.

If the brand draws visitors all year
€83 m a year

Assume 2% of Munich’s overnight stays outside festival time exist only because of the festival’s fame.

7 · History

The litre since 1950

Consumer prices have risen 6.6-fold since 1950. The price of a Maß has risen 17.6-fold.

€0.87price in 1950
€15.33price in 2025
×2.7in real terms
8 · Encore

Cheerful knowledge