Oktoberfest ride hands out shorts amid filming concerns

Women and girls wearing dresses at Munich’s Oktoberfest are being offered free cycling shorts at the Teufelsrad, a spinning ride where skirts can fly up as the platform accelerates. Operator Elisabeth Polaczy told the BBC she has handed out more than 100 pairs at this year’s festival. She said she began offering them three years ago to protect visitors from people filming in the crowd. [1]

Videos of women on the ride have circulated online. The BBC cited Munich newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung as saying at least 32,000 such videos have been in circulation. That is a count of videos, not of upskirting offences. [1]

Filming beneath someone’s skirt is illegal in Germany and can lead to a two-year prison sentence. Josephine Ballon, head of the non-profit Hate Aid, told the BBC that the law does not cover photographs taken when a skirt flies up. [1]