E-Malt.com News article: Germany: Oktoberfest visitors not allowed to smoke over their beer anymore

Smokers heading to Germany's famous annual beer festival, Oktoberfest, will be forced to smoke outside after voters supported a total smoking ban in Bavaria for restaurants, bars, cafes and beer tents, UKPA reported this week.

Although turnout for the referendum was relatively low, at 37.7%, a full 61% of those voting favoured a complete ban on smoking, according to Bavarian election officials.

The ban overturning an existing law will take effect on August 1 - with an exception allowing limited smoking at this year's Oktoberfest.

The result reinstates a complete ban imposed in 2008 but loosened by the state government last year. The milder law permitted smoking in small, one-room bars, nightclubs and discos, as well as the vast tents of the beer festival.

Oktoberfest managers have appealed for an exemption, claiming that it would be impossible to monitor the ban in tents holding thousands of revellers.

“We had hoped that sense would prevail and that we could retain our tradition,” said Toni Roiderer, spokesman for the festival brewers, “but if the majority sees it otherwise, then we won’t permit smoking any more in the beer tents.”

An unrepresentative survey on the Oktoberfest website found 70 per cent opposed to the ban. The Bavarian state government has insisted this year’s Oktoberfest will be exempt from the ban.

Meanwhile, Bavaria’s Green Party, which supported the referendum, has called for the new law to be imposed nationally.


07 July, 2010