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Projects don鈥檛 get more seasonal than Munich鈥檚 celebration of beer and Bavarian culture, writes Richard Young.

The first Oktoberfest took place in 1810 to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. That鈥檚 where the event鈥檚 local name, 鈥榃iesn鈥�, comes from: the venue was (and still is) Theresienwiese (Therese鈥檚 field), a 42-hectare fairground.

That鈥檚 great news for the festival鈥檚 project managers. It means there鈥檚 little uncertainty around infrastructure needs, and the project managers can plan well in advance for the various beer tents, bands and other entertainment.

鈥淭he scale is extraordinary,鈥� says Dr Christian Scharpf, Oktoberfest鈥檚 Director since March 2025. 鈥淲e鈥檙e essentially building a temporary city from scratch.鈥� It takes them about 12 weeks.

In 2023, the official Oktoberfest involved:

• Guests: 7.2 million (up from 6.3 million in 2019).
• Beer: 6.5 million litres (down on 2019鈥檚 estimate of 7.3 million).
• Food: 124 oxen, 29 calves, 509,420 roast chickens, 122,658 pairs of pork sausages and 80,259 knuckles of pork.
• Attempted theft: security recovered 115,600 惭补脽办谤眉驳别 (what we usually call 鈥榮teins鈥�) from visitors leaving the site.
• Energy: 2.8 million kWh of electricity consumed (12% less than in 2022).
• Refuse: 300 tonnes.
• First aid: 7,620 patients (only 600 with alcohol poisoning!).

This list reminds us that project metrics need to be thoughtful. If you manage what you measure, focusing on just one output 鈥� in this case, the amount of beer consumed 鈥� could be disastrous. The people of Munich need to feel the event is doing more than just drawing tourists 鈥� and isn鈥檛 adversely affecting their city. Project planners at the local transport agency, for example, need to plan special services to accommodate as many as four million extra trips a day.

And because it鈥檚 all about beer, that monitoring of first aid and crime is important. A well-thought-through project plan includes 鈥� at the least 鈥� provisions to measure the second-order impacts of the project being successful. It might be too much to monitor hangovers, but knowing what kind of strain your project puts on local amenities is a must.

The other big issue is tradition 鈥� what we might call project purpose. All beer served at Wiesn is brewed to the exacting German beer purity laws by just six breweries. That keeps the product local and is a defining project purpose for the organisers.

But that doesn鈥檛 mean the project is stuck in the 1810s. Today, pipelines transport beer from breweries to the festival tents. The Paulaner brewery鈥檚 automation system analyses flow, temperature and pressure, and sends hourly updates to the brewery staff via email or text regarding the beer usage from each tap station, speeding up service and reducing costs and emissions.

Andre Listing, Project and Event Manager for the festival, has also commissioned high-tech crowd simulations 鈥渢o significantly optimise our evacuation concept鈥� and ensure the site remains safe.

The guy鈥檚 a risk register guru who says 鈥渢here has never been an accident with visitors on the premises鈥� while the project has been under construction.

The Oktoberfest phenomenon has spread way beyond Bavaria. The biggest of these beer projects is, remarkably, China鈥檚 Qingdao International Beer Festival 鈥� in August, annoyingly. But while the project managers there have swerved Munich鈥檚 traditional October end date, they clearly know a good project when they see one. They鈥檝e even taken on board the benefits of a dedicated site (built in 2015) and sell sauerkraut and bratwurst and host Bavarian oompah bands. One difference: instead of 惭补脽办谤眉驳别, the tradition in Qingdao is selling beer in plastic bags. That鈥檚 going to make security鈥檚 job a lot easier 鈥� but the clean-up costs in the project plan must be a lot higher.

And although for any event project manager the job鈥檚 not over until the clean-up is finished, it鈥檚 clear that in Munich about now they鈥檒l be looking forward to the cry of 鈥楨s ist angezapft!鈥� (鈥楾he first keg is tapped鈥�). Prost!

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