OREANDA-NEWS. The Oktoberfest beer festival will not take place in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the dpa news agency reported on Monday, May 3, citing a meeting between the Prime Minister of Bavaria and the Mayor of Munich. The festival was scheduled to take place in Munich from September 18 to October 3.

About six million people from all over the world participate in Oktoberfest every year. The international nature of the event was the reason for the organizers to lean towards the decision to cancel it in 2021, writes dpa. The threat of coronavirus infection remains high in the second year of the pandemic.

The cancellation of the festival will cause damage not only to Bavarian beer companies, but the hoteliers, retail stores, taxi companies. Munich also does not count a significant profit – the economic value of Oktoberfest in 2019 was 1.23 billion euros.

The daily increase in coronavirus infections in Germany was 9,160 cases, the Robert Koch Institute reported. Over the past 24 hours, 84 patients died in Germany (60 a week earlier), the total number of deaths increased to 83,276. Since the beginning of the epidemic, about 3.04 million people have recovered.