Backpacks will be banned this year at Oktoberfest

Backpacks will be banned this year at Oktoberfest in Munich in an attempt to strengthen security at the famous Bavarian beer festival. Backpacks of more than 3 liters (0.8 gallons) in capacity and other large bags won’t be allowed into the annual beer celebration, which runs Sept. 17-Oct. 3, deputy mayor Josef Schmid said.

Mayor Josef Schmidt stressed, however, that Theresienwiese, the vast market where traditionally the event is organized, “won’t become a high-security zone, but there will be important changes that affect all guests. More, Schmid declared that there is “no concrete danger” to the Oktoberfest — “there are no threatening videos or anything like that.”

The announcement comes in the context in which Germany has faced lately with several bloody attacks, two of them claimed by ISIS, one being a suicide attack with the author hiding explosives in his backpack. This is the reason why the number of policemen will be higher this year in Munich, with security being ensured during the peak of the festival by 450 specialists, compared to 250 last year.

Among the proposed measures there are several checks on entry and the possibility that security forces to ban certain people if getting overcrowd. With 6 million visitors, Oktoberfest is the biggest beer festival in Europe. This year the event will take place from 17 September and 3 October.