Munich's 2026 Oktoberfest poster has drawn accusations of AI involvement from the city's graphic design community, despite contest rules explicitly prohibiting the use of artificial intelligence.
Munich holds an open poster competition every year to choose the official image of Oktoberfest. The public and a jury together select the winner from the full pool of entries. The competition attracts entries from the local design community and remains a prominent civic tradition.
This year's annual Oktoberfest logo competition winner is Florian Huber, a graphic designer who also stood third in the 2021 competition. His design outperformed and was the jury's top pick, giving him the overall win.
Not long after the poster's release, several graphic designers questioned whether Huber had used an AI image generator. Critics pointed to specific details in the artwork, like the church towers in the background and the tent imagery in the foreground, which don't match real Munich architecture.
Munich's Department of Labor and Economic Affairs reviewed Huber's design after the accusations surfaced, according to one report, which states that officials examined the artwork closely and concluded it showed no signs of AI generation.
The accusations have not changed the outcome. Huber's poster remains the official image of Oktoberfest 2026, which will run from 19 September through 4 October on the Theresienwiese.