Munich hits back at rival ‘Oktoberfest’ event in Dubai Rob Picheta and Rob Iddiols, CNN • Updated 2nd May 2021 Facebook Twitter Email (CNN) — The organizers of Oktoberfest, Munich’s heralded and raucous annual beer festival, have criticized plans to create a rival event in Dubai and sought to reassure Germans that the original won’t be moving. Organizers of a breakaway festival confirmed to CNN their plans to emulate Munich’s Oktoberfest at the Dubai Marina from October 2021 until 2022 — running parallel to the World Expo event. “Oktoberfest in Dubai” is promoted by Charles Blume, who helps organize the Berlin Christmas market, and is set to feature dozens of beer tents, food stands, attractions and rides. The location hosts up to 120,000 guests and there will be “no restrictions to traditional Bavarian dress, beer, music or sale and consumption of foods of any kind.” But reports of the event have angered many Germans, some of whom criticized the prospect on social media. And organizers said they weren’t involved with any plans to relocate their festival, known locally as Wiesn, insisting that the original would remain in Bavaria and the rival event was unconnected. “Recently, media in German-speaking countries have been reporting intensively on plans by a private individual to hold an Oktoberfest in Dubai,” organizers wrote on their website. “Various headlines linguistically suggest that the Munich Oktoberfest is actually being relocated to Dubai, is moving there, or is taking place in the desert this year due to a possible cancellation. “The Oktoberfest is a Munich original and takes place exclusively in Munich,” a spokesperson for the Department of Labor and Economic Affairs of the City of Munich, which organizes the event, said in a statement. l
