Oktoberfest's new organisers on cutting the parade route
The Thanksgiving parade survives, but two kilometres shorter and an hour earlier, and the festival's new board says both changes are about the same thing: volunteers.
By Ellen Vogt· Published August 22, 2026
·1 min read
The Thanksgiving parade will run two kilometres shorter this year and step off an hour earlier, the festival's new board announced, and both changes trace to the same line in the annual report: marshal volunteers, down 40 per cent since 2019.
The route now ends at the market instead of the auditorium, which the board frames as a destination and the auditorium's neighbourhood frames as a loss.
The festival's beer halls are unaffected, a sentence the board asked us to print high in the story.