Oktoberfest 1984–2019 by Volker Derlath

For 35 years, Munich photographer Volker Derlath has hardly missed a Wiesn day. With his camera, right in the middle of the action, he is capturing intimate moments, touching scenes, moments full of violence and comedy. The “folk festival of all folk festivals” reminds him, with its incomparable coarseness of folk amusements, of the Middle Ages, he says. The Wiesn is a kind of utopia where visitors can live out what has long since been domesticated in their everyday lives and swept under the rug of civilization.

The Munich Oktoberfest, also known as the Wiesn, is considered the largest folk festival in the world: two exhilarating weeks with beer, chicken, rides and partying people from all over the world. But like last year, this year’s festival has been canceled due to a pandemic. Sad news for the worldwide fan community. With Oktoberfest we would like to remember a time when people could still unconditionally drink, flirt, and celebrate together.

“So entsteht dann Fotokunst aus einem Ausnahmezustand, der – genau betrachtet – das allzu Normale nur in eine andere Form packt.”
SUEDDEUTSCHE.DE, Franz Kotteder 

Awarded with Deutscher Fotobuchpreis (Special Mention).