Munich, 5 July 2024 (dpa/MIA) - The price of beer at Germany's Oktoberfest is to rise by an average of 3.9% and exceed the €15 ($16) mark for the first time, the City of Munich announced on Wednesday.

A 1-litre glass of beer at the festival in the Bavarian capital will cost between €13.60 and €15.30 this year, the city said.

Last year, the price range for a litre of festival beer was between €12.60 and €14.90.

As the organizer of the Oktoberfest, the city checks whether the prices calculated by the pub owners are reasonable. To do this, it compares them with the prices charged by large catering establishments in Munich. They currently charge between €7.70 and €12.80 per litre of export beer.

However, Oktoberfest beer comes with extra costs. It is brewed especially for the festival and is particularly strong with an alcohol content of around 6%.

In addition, proprietors have to put up and take down the tents for the two weeks of the festival, and there is live music.

Beer prices at the festival site have roughly doubled since 2004: 20 years ago, a litre of beer cost between €6.70 and €7.10.

Non-alcoholic drinks at the Oktoberfest will also be more expensive this year: a litre of table water will cost an average of €10.48, up from €10.04 in 2023, a Spezi beer €12.23, up from €11.65 in 2023 and lemonade €11.67, up from €11.17 in 2023.

The good news: if you want to save money and quench your thirst for free, you can help yourself at the drinking water fountains. There are 10 of them on the site this year, twice as many as last year.

Construction of the large festival tents began on Monday for the festival that starts on September 21. Six million visitors are expected by October 6.

Last year, 7.2 million guests took part in the beer festival in fantastic weather, more than in decades. They drank 6.5 million litres of beer. The amount of meat consumed was not published.

Photo: MIA archive