Smoking ban for Oktoberfest revellers

Smokers heading to Germany's famous annual beer festival, Oktoberfest, will be forced to light up outside after voters supported a total smoking ban in Bavaria for restaurants, bars, cafes and beer tents.

Although turnout for the referendum was relatively low, at 37.7%, a full 61% of those voting favoured a complete ban on smoking, according to Bavarian election officials.

The ban overturning an existing law will take effect on August 1 - with an exception allowing limited smoking at this year's Oktoberfest.

Bavaria once had some of the toughest smoking restrictions in Germany.

But it eased them last year, allowing smoking in one-room bars of up to 800 square feet and in beer tents - a nod to Munich's annual Oktoberfest. Larger bars can have a separate room for smokers.

The left-leaning Greens and Social Democrats lobbied for a referendum in hopes of returning to a complete ban.