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Rabat – Munich has distanced itself from plans to organize its iconic Oktoberfest beer festival in the Emirati city of Dubai in 2021. The Bavarian festival where participants engage in days of binge drinking, accompanied with generous portions of German sausages, will not “move” to the Gulf, according to a statement by its organizers.
Munich’s iconic festival was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the event is still in doubt due to the continued impact of the virus in Germany. With Bavarians pining for their annual cultural celebration, many were dismayed to see Dubai announce it would organize the festival instead.
“We will examine all legal options to protect our Munich Oktoberfest,” organizer Clemens Baumgartner told German DPA news. Baumgartner stated that “there is only one real Oktoberfest, and that is in Munich.”
German media and commentators expressed outrage regarding plans to host an Oktoberfest event near Dubai’s upscale marina. Roughly 2,000 imitations of the iconic festival are organized across the globe every year, yet this year’s Dubai plans hit a sore spot as Munich’s original festival’s future remains in doubt amid Germany’s measures to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Read also: Dubai Loosens Alcohol Restrictions to Boost Hospitality Industry
Local media reported on the Dubai event not as another imitation, but as a plan to “move” Munich’s original Oktoberfest to the glittering Emirati city.
Munich’s outrage stems from a report in German sensationalist tabloid Bild, which wrote about the Dubai Oktoberfest plans in a way clearly aiming to generate outrage.
“The sultan is thirsty,” Bild reporters wrote, adding a statement from German beer manufacturer Anheuser-Busch speculating they would need to brew lighter beer “because of the heat there.” The tabloid quoted organizer Baumgartner saying “an Oktoberfest in Dubai is as credible as a pro-democracy protest in North Korea.”
Bild reporters conflated the delivery of Bavarian beer to the festival in a way that made it sound the festival itself would be moved to the UAE this year. With Bavarians mourning the likely cancelation of their beloved Oktoberfest, the reporting on Dubai’s event prompted the city of Munich to issue a statement clarifying matters.
The UAE’s high vaccination rate does mean that it is more likely that this year Dubai will feature a larger Oktoberfest than Munich. The remarkable situation reveals both the intensity of Europe’s COVID-19 crisis and the increasingly open-minded nature of the Emirati city.
