Women given shorts at Oktoberfest to prevent upskirting

At Oktoberfest, Elisabeth Polaczy, 80, has been distributing free cycling shorts to women and girls wearing dresses in an effort to curb upskirting. She says she has carried out this practice for the past three years and, this year alone, has handed out more than 100 pairs. “I privation to bash everything I tin to marque radical consciousness secure,” she told the BBC. According to BR, one woman earned €9,000 (£7,650) from a single clip. BR’s investigation found that a group of non‑professional YouTubers from Ukraine and another group from Bavaria were responsible for the videos. The Munich‑based Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that at least 32,000 videos of women on the Teufelsrad have been in circulation, with some clips reportedly viewed millions of times. The Teufelsrad is adorned with signs and police posters in German and English warning against filming beneath skirts, but Polaczy says it is impossible to prevent every individual with a smartphone from capturing such footage. Some waitresses at this year’s beer festival have also begun wearing cycling shorts beneath their dirndls. A spokesperson for the Bavarian constabulary told the BBC that, since 2025, the force has run a poster campaign at Oktoberfest informing the public about the illegality of upskirting.