Not only in Munich, but also in Frankfurt it is said this year: O´zopft is ned! After the worldwide popular folk festival in the Bavarian capital was already (understandably) canceled a few weeks ago, now the much smaller, but no less popular Frankfurt variant must follow suit. This was announced today by the organizers of the Frankfurt Oktoberfest, Patrick and Dennis Hausmann and Kai Mann, with a heavy heart. The plan was for the Frankfurt Oktoberfest to take place from September 17 to October 11, 2020 in the large marquee at the Commerzbank Arena. Last year, around 60,000 people celebrated the eleventh birthday of the Frankfurt Gaudi in the Festhalle Hausmann. For the twelfth edition, visitors must now unfortunately wait until 2021.
The cancellation is actually not surprising. Because still the situation - despite falling case numbers in Germany - is not foreseeable and large events remain banned. And for Patrick Hausmann is clear: "Independent of the question of whether such a large festival in September and October will be allowed at all due to the Corona situation, we want to take responsibility for our guests as well as employees." His brother Dennis Hausmann agrees and adds: "Our festival thrives on closeness, on conviviality. That is simply not possible this year."
Kai Mann joins in and explains: "By God, we did not make this decision easily. The Munich Oktoberfest was already cancelled some time ago, we could wait a little longer because the construction work does not take so long. Even if the regulations were to be relaxed in August, we would still not be able to stage our friendly family festival in the way our guests are used to. Our hopes now lie first on the Tracht nights at the spring Dippemess' next year. It may be that in 2021, as a small bonus, we will then hold four to five Tracht Nights instead of just three. We hope that by that time the virus has been conquered or a vaccine has been found so that we can use the Tracht nights to build anticipation for the Frankfurt Oktoberfest in 2021."
In just a few years, the Frankfurt Oktoberfest has become an absolute crowd-pleaser. Many evenings are often sold out after the start of advance sales and in terms of atmosphere, the festival does not have to hide from the great example from Munich. It is sad that the festival had to be cancelled, but everyone who has ever been there will be able to confirm: This is unfortunately not the time for a big party like this. And so we hope that all Wiesn fans will be able to meet again in 2021 at the Commerzbank Arena - which will then be called Deutsche Bank Park.
