"The first week went by peacefully," Oktoberfest Director Christian Scharpf said at the festival's half-way point. Munich's Deputy Mayor Verena Dietl praised the "good, harmonious atmosphere."

The city's police force also delivered a positive report half-way through the event in Munich .

But if you take a closer look, all is not peachy at the Wiesn, as as the event is popularly known. Service personnel are among those painting a very different picture. And they're the ones at the heart of the action. The situations they encounter often go unreported and don't appear in the statistics, but sometimes, a line is crossed with racist, discriminatory comments, for example.

In response, a group of service staff have launched an initiative calling for "mutual respect at the Wiesn."

In a video posted on Instagram and TikTok, staff say: "For years, we've been observing how it's suddenly acceptable to say certain things again, and that there's less of an outcry."

Service personnel say the election successes of the…