Olympic Park welcomes 5.3 million visitors in 2024

The five million mark was only passed once after football moved out in 2005: That was in 2006, the year of the Football World Cup. Around one million fans celebrated their teams at the public viewing of the first official fan festival in the Olympic Park. Despite this, the total number of visitors at the time was ‘only’ 5.1 million.

‘The successful year 2024 proved once again what a diverse, attractive and internationally outstanding event centre the Olympic Park is. And once again - as in 2006 - football played a major role with the European Championships in our own country. Last year, we experienced a real event marathon - with 31 days of EURO Fan Zone, the European Handball Championships, international stars at ten open-air events, the Harry Potter exhibition, our own events and high-calibre concerts,' says a delighted Marion Schöne, Managing Director of Olympic Park Munich GmbH, adding: ’I am happy that the Olympic Park was a meeting place for peaceful celebrations for people from all over the world. And I am proud of our Olympic Park team, who have mastered this special year with great commitment and dedication.’

In total, the Olympic Park 2024 welcomed around four million visitors (previous year: 2.9 million) to 326 events on 593 event days. Over 1.3 million (previous year: 1.6 million) people used the leisure and tourism facilities. These figures do not include the thousands of Munich residents and tourists who visited the park last year without being registered.

‘As Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board, I am delighted with this outstanding visitor result, which underlines the excellent reputation of the Olympic Park. It is undoubtedly a top event venue, an excellent place for thousands of recreational athletes and a tourist destination whose magic continues to inspire today,’ explains Mayor Verena Dietl, adding: ’My thanks go to Marion Schöne and her team, who do everything they can every year to provide all visitors with wonderful experiences. It is also very pleasing that a very positive economic result was also achieved.’

The European Men's Handball Championship was on the full calendar right at the start of the year. After the 2019 Handball World Championship, the Olympic Hall once again proved that it can be a true handball stronghold even without a Bundesliga team in town - this time for over 144,000 fans. From 14 June to 14 July, over 700,000 football fans from all over Europe dominated the UEFA EURO Fan Zone in the Olympic Park for 31 days. The Scottish fans in their traditional kilts as well as the fan walk of the Dutch fans are unforgettable. The Small Olympic Hall was transformed into Hogwarts for three months during the Harry Potter exhibition, attracting over 340,000 visitors.

With ten concerts and around 700,000 visitors, the Olympic Stadium did not set a new open-air record - there were eleven in 2023. But during the performances by Taylor Swift and Coldplay, their fans ensured that the Olympic hill - which has since been renamed Tayhill or Mount Swiftie - was populated by tens of thousands of people and even made it into the New York Times. The Superbloom Festival in the Olympic Park attracted another 100,000 visitors.

A new attendance record was set for the events organised by OMG itself. MASH celebrated its tenth anniversary with 96,000 action sports enthusiasts for the first time. Despite an initial thunderstorm and downpours, 30,000 visitors enjoyed the live acts and the dazzling fireworks display at the Midsummer Night's Dream and well over 300,000 people enjoyed the family classic, the Summer Festival.

The Olympic Hall was also well filled with old and new superstars and shows until the end of the year. In total, Munich's biggest event hall counted over one million guests.

The total number of visitors to leisure and tourism facilities fell in 2014. But that was to be expected. After all, the Olympic Tower was closed for renovation on 1 June. And public ice skating at the ice sports centre ended in April. Since August, the SAP Garden has been the new home for all ice sports fans.

‘While last year gave us every reason to be happy, the current year presents us with new challenges. The outstanding open-air seasons of the last two years will not continue in 2025. We will not be the only stadium in Germany to return to ‘normal operations’ - even if we can use the Allianz Arena as an alternative venue. The decline in open-air events, the closure of the Olympic Tower, the discontinuation of public ice skating and the closure of the Olympic Stadium from this autumn will have a direct impact on both visitor numbers and revenue, but there will still be new highlights this year, such as the new biathlon event Loop One Festival, the establishment of the Olympic Action Sports Centre and the mobile observation tower as a temporary replacement attraction for the Olympic Tower,’ says Marion Schöne.

Photo credit: Olympic Park Munich/Fabian Stoffers