Oktoberfest’s second-largest beer tent will now be hosted by Lorenz Stiftl and his wife, Christine, with effect from 2026. They take over from the Schörghuber-Pongratz family, who led the tent for more than two decades.
The Paulaner brewery announced the news at a press conference at the Nockherberg. The decision closes the long era of Arabella Schörghuber, who stepped down after the 2025 Wiesn. Stiftl called it the most wonderful business news the couple had ever received, and Christine described taking over the tent as a culinary honor.
The Stiftls know the festival well. Lorenz ran his own small beer tent on the Wiesn, first as the small tent named Wienerwald, later renamed as Zum Stiftl. The couple also runs the Schützenlisl folk-singers' tent on the Oide Wiesn. That long track record weighed heavily in the decision. Paulaner managing director Thomas Drossé pointed to the family's experience and called the Spöckmeier restaurant and the Paulaner Festzelt two important venues he looks forward to running successfully with an experienced host family.
The new Paulener’s host family cooks in the Bavarian cuisine tradition and won recognition from the Bavarian State Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Tourism under its 30 for 30 initiative for their flagship Bio-Bavaria Wiesn Revolution project on sustainability. They also run their own EU-certified butcher shop in Munich, where master butcher Andreas Jung prepares all sausages fresh each day from meat from regional farms.
The Paulaner Festzelt seats around 9,000 guests, pours Paulaner's Oktoberfest beer, and sits at the foot of the Bavaria statue under its 24-meter tower topped with a giant beer stein. The tent was comprehensively modernized in 2010, when it gained its innovative beer pipeline for faster, cleaner pours, and it still pairs that modern standard with classic Wiesn character. The Stiftls plan to carry that tradition forward, and they greeted guests for 2026 with a promise to continue the tent's history with pride and passion.
Guests can expect a few changes under the new management. Stiftl opened the reservation phase by asking guests about their menu orders, and the tent added more tables seating 11 people. A new reservation portal is now live, since the previous customer data could not be carried over for data protection reasons.
The tent will begin construction at the end of June to be ready for the upcoming Oktoberfest 2026, scheduled to run from September 19 to October 4.