Munich’s famed beer-and-sausage festival is having a hard time drawing crowds this year, with numbers of attendees for the first weekend down by as much as 50%, while Stuttgart’s Cannstatter Volksfest, dedicated to mainly the same menu, drew twice as many as Munich.
Local officials are blaming the drop on bad weekend weather for the opening, and lingering fears over terror attacks earlier in the year that have led to tight security measures. Stuttgart had bright sun and warm temperatures.
To put it in perspective, the drop means that Munich had a ‘mere’ HALF MILLION beer drinkers flocking to the tents on the festival field.
The tight security may have prevented terrorist attacks, but it didn’t guarantee good behavior by festival-goers. Among the incidents so far, several people injured jumping or falling onto tables of glasses, a man hit in the head with a liter-size beer mug in a dispute over arm-wrestling, and a drunken reveler who managed to damage 19 cars with his feet and hands.
The festival continues until October 3.
