Bits & Pretzels 2026

Bits & Pretzels by the numbers

Every figure links to where it came from. Attendance for an event that has not happened is a projection, and each row says so rather than presenting it as a count.

• Dates28 to 30 Sep

  Official site. Three days at the Festhalle Schottenhamel on the Oktoberfest grounds, timed to coincide with the festival. Bits & Pretzels

• Capacity7,500

  Deliberately capped by the organiser rather than a reported attendance. The cap is the product: it is what keeps the founder-to-investor ratio workable. Bits & Pretzels

• Founders and investors3,000 / 1,700

  3,000-plus founders and 1,700-plus investors, a curated 2:1 ratio. Also 600-plus corporate decision-makers from companies above EUR 50m revenue. Bits & Pretzels

• Meetings21,000

  Expected founder-investor meetings across the three days, supported by 70-plus matchmakers assigned to guide attendees. Bits & Pretzels

What is Bits & Pretzels?

Bits & Pretzels is Munich's founders festival, held on the Oktoberfest grounds and timed to coincide with the festival itself. The 2026 dates are 28 to 30 September at the Festhalle Schottenhamel. Its distinguishing feature is deliberate constraint: attendance is capped at 7,500 with a curated two-to-one founder-to-investor ratio, which is the opposite of the scale-maximising approach taken by most events in this directory.

Who goes to Bits & Pretzels?

European startup founders, venture investors and corporate decision-makers, with the organiser citing 3,000-plus founders, 1,700-plus investors and 600-plus corporates from companies above EUR 50 million in revenue. The curation is the point: the ratio is managed rather than incidental, which is why the meeting numbers are as high as they are for an event of this size.

Bits & Pretzels side events

The Oktoberfest table format is effectively the side-event programme built into the event: 250-plus Table Captains host tables in the beer tents, which is where a large share of the networking happens. Munich also fills with investor dinners and startup gatherings that week. Aspire does not run any of them.

Bits & Pretzels tickets and costs

Tickets are sold through the official checkout. Happy Bird tickets, the cheapest tier, were described as almost sold out when this page was last checked, but no prices were displayed on the page checked, so none are quoted here. Because attendance is capped at 7,500, this is one of the few events in this directory where waiting genuinely risks not getting in at all rather than merely paying more.

• Happy BirdAlmost sold out

  The cheapest tier, described as almost sold out on the official site when checked on 30 August 2026. No price was displayed on the page checked. Bits & Pretzels

Getting to Festhalle Schottenhamel

The Theresienwiese, where the Festhalle Schottenhamel sits, has its own U-Bahn station and is a short ride from Munich Hauptbahnhof. Munich Airport is about 45 minutes by S-Bahn. During Oktoberfest the area is extremely busy, so allow considerably more time than the map suggests.

Where to stay for Bits & Pretzels

Anywhere central on the U-Bahn, though the warning matters more here than anywhere else in this directory: Munich hotel prices during Oktoberfest rise several times over and availability disappears months ahead. Book long before you would for a normal conference, or stay outside the city and commute in by S-Bahn.

What to know before booking Bits & Pretzels

The Table Captain format is the thing that makes Bits & Pretzels work and the thing newcomers most often ignore. Sitting at a hosted table in a beer tent generates more useful conversation than the stage programme does. Note also the calendar clash: it overlaps almost exactly with Korea Blockchain Week and SuperReturn Asia, so late September forces a genuine choice.

Bits & Pretzels: common questions