Oktoberfest 2026 opens: 191st Wiesn runs until 4 October
Munich's Oktoberfest opened on Saturday. The 191st Wiesn began at noon, when the city's new mayor tapped the first barrel in the Schottenhamel tent. He needed two strokes, which puts him level with his two predecessors as the fastest to manage it.
The day follows a fixed order that regular visitors know and newcomers usually do not. Before the tapping comes the entry of the brewers and tent landlords, a slow and traditional procession. Then comes the part that produces the pictures: the Wiesn-Run, when mostly younger visitors sprint across the Theresienwiese to claim tables in the tents. People had been queuing outside the grounds since the early hours, some since the previous day. This year security staff let visitors in as larger groups rather than all at once, after injuries during the run in previous years. The first group went in about ten minutes late.
No beer is poured before noon, whatever time the gates open. That is the rule every year and it catches people out.
The festival runs from Saturday 19 September to Sunday 4 October, sixteen days in total. If you are planning to go, the crowding is very uneven, and the organisers publish a barometer for each day in three bands: ten to three, three to six, and from six in the evening. The Saturdays are the worst. On 26 September and 3 October the top rating of very heavy is expected for the afternoon and the evening, and 3 October is a public holiday, which pulls in extra visitors. The evening of opening day is also rated very heavy from six o'clock.
The quietest stretches are the Mondays. On 21 and 28 September the barometer rates the crowds as calm from ten in the morning to six in the evening, filling up only later. Later in the run does not automatically mean fuller: on the Sundays of 27 September and 4 October the peak falls in the mid-afternoon and eases again after six.
If crowding matters to you, go on a weekday and go early. Entry to the grounds is free; what fills up are the tents.