Why Oktoberfest's Turnout This Year Is Half of What It Used to Be

Oktoberfest kicked off this past weekend, but the famously drunk festival was only half as drunk as usual. Thanks to shitty weather and lingering security fears in the wake of terrorist attacks in and around Munich, attendance at the festival's opening weekend dropped from a million visitors last year to just 500,000 lederhosen-clad revelers this year.

Rain drenched Munich from Friday night until late into Sunday, keeping would-be beer drinkers at home or otherwise holed up away from the festival.

But while fears of soggy pretzels may have been the main factor in decreased attendance, security concerns also dampened turnout. In July, a German-Iranian gunman killed nine people and injured 27 others at a Munich mall, just days after an Afghan teenager wounded four people with an axe on a Bavarian train. And four days after the Munich shooting, a Syrian migrant set off a bomb in a bar in the nearby town of Ansbach. Leading up to this year's Oktoberfest, some hotels saw fewer bookings amidst the tense state of affairs, according to The Local.

Oktoberfest officials have taken action to ensure the safety of attendees by beefing up security, hiring twice as many security guards as in years past and bringing in an extra 100 police officers. For the first time ever, a fence was erected around the festival. Bags with a carrying capacity of more than three liters were prohibited from being brought onto the festival grounds, too.

"We have done everything that was necessary and appropriate," Josef Schmid, the deputy mayor of Munich said. "Go out, have a good time, celebrate—but please pay attention to the normal rules."

If attendance doesn't pick up over the rest of the festival, it will mark the second year that turnout is down, in part thanks to geopolitical instability. Last year, attendance was lower as well thanks to complications in rail travel amidst the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis. Increased border control led to 400,000 fewer people showing up, and in Munich cops worked to keep Oktoberfest attendees and about 40,000 migrants who arrived to the city during the festival's first two weekends separate.

Amidst this year's decreased opening-weekend turnout, Munich's mayor, Dieter Reiter, said the smaller crowd was good for locals, who didn't have to battle tourists for seats in Oktoberfest's packed beer halls. But while Munich residents enjoyed their steins in peace, here's hoping things are back to normal levels of celebration next week—if anything's going to ruin Oktoberfest, it should a terrible hangover, and not terrorism.