I get why they do it. Oktoberfest in Munich led to a big Covid surge with hospitals filling up at a dangerous rate, and experience tells that December will be worse, so their event would almost certainly be severely downsized or altogether disallowed by the authorities. Renewed Covid restrictions are already being debated in German politics with the general expectation being that some restrictions like masks and less or no large events will be imposed. Can't do an event at their scale in such an environment, not to speak of pricing issues due to energy etc. that they didn't even go into, but that will almost certainly have played a role as well. All of this really, really sucks.<p>It's a bit sad that they (apparently?) won't be doing a remote replacement, though. I realize you can't do a proper Congress remotely, but having some of the nice things (like the talks) sure beats having none. Not sure how exactly those decentralized events will shape out, but their announcement reads like they're focusing on the in-person elements, so I have to assume they'll be like hackerspace open-door events that cater to the locals.