In April, Zürich city celebrates Sechseläuten, a big spring festival which culminates with the burning of a snowman, aka Böögg, on a big bonfire. How fast it burns and explodes his head predicts how hot summer will be.
Afterwards, the public can roast sausages on the bonfire, which we finally tried with our kids this year. It was total madness and could be dangerous for kids (and adults!), but also fun to participate in this local tradition. After doing it once, there are some obvious ways to improve this experience. So here are my tips for having a successful roast on the Böögg bonfire.
How it works
The main bonfire is way too hot to roast sausages directly on that fire, though some people tried with ridiculously long sticks. Instead, most people use long handled shovels to scoop out coals and dump them in little fire pits dug in the sand that surrounds the bonfire. This is difficult enough with the intense heat of the enormous fire.
But since the whole area is covered with dozens of little campfires and people surrounding them, it is extremely difficult to walk through the crowd to access the bonfire and return to your own fire pit with those hot coals. We saw hot coals fall off shovels onto people’s heads and laps multiple times.
When we first pushed our way to the fire, we almost turned back and left because it seemed impossible to get the coals out safely. But after watching a few crazy souls do it, my husband ran into the fire to scoop coals, while I helped clear a path back to our fire pit. We survived to tell the tale.
To make your own fire:
- make a small fire pit in the sand and have someone guard it.
- borrow a shovel – I don’t where those shovels come from, seemed privately owned. Just keep circling the crowd until you find someone with a shovel and beg them to use it and follow them around until they give it you.
- squeeze through the crowd to the bonfire. Other people will want your shovel, so ask them to help you clear the path, then they can have the shovel after you.
- quickly run into the bonfire, scoop some coals and quickly run out
- clear a path back to your fire pit by having someone walk in front of you yelling “Heiss!!!!!” (aka hot)
- dump your coals in your pit, return the shovel, and congratulate yourself on a job well done.
Profi Tips
Some tips to make your experience better…
1. Bring a grill bucket
Instead of carrying a huge, heavy shovel full of sizzling coals 20 meters through a dense crowd, bring a grill bucket with a handle, fill it with coals at the bonfire (just ask someone with a shovel at the fire to fill your bucket) and carry it through the crowd. We saw lots of other people doing this – so smart! I recommend bringing an oven mitt or leather grill gloves to make carrying it easier.
2. Bring roasting sticks
Don’t forget to bring your own roasting sticks. Lots of people had wood sticks and you could probably borrow some or recover some discarded sticks, but that would be an extra hassle. We have reusable roasting forks that we bring to every campfire.
3. Go late
You can start grilling pretty soon after the Böögg explodes and the first ones there can hypothetically get a prime picnic spot next to the big fire. But it gets so crowded so quickly, that you might want to wait until people start to leave. We got there about 19:30 and it was packed tight. The crowd started to thin a bit by 21:00 when we left, so I think next time we would go later, even though it’s not great for kids that have to go to school the next day. The fire was still huge and raging at 21:00 so I don’t think there’s a risk of getting there too late.
4. Bring a full picnic
We only brought the basics: brought sausage, bread, mustard and drinks. When I got there, I was jealous of all the people that had brought salads and other snacky things. Some people had grills, so they were cooking up fancier things like veg and brochettes. I was thinking we’d just roast the sausage and be on our way. But it’s more like a tailgate party, with everyone socializing and hanging out with friends. I should have brought more food and maybe stuff for s’mores.
The website said they give away 1000 free sausages but I saw no evidence of this. Bring your own.
5. Bring a tray or mini table for food prep
You are cooking and sitting in sand. So we had problems with kids dropping their sausages in the sand, people kicking sand onto our plates, roasting forks falling into the sand – basically sand everywhere.
I would have loved some sort of surface where we could have set our plates, knife, ketchup/mustard bottles, bread bag, etc instead of trying to balance them on our backpacks and stuff inevitably falling into the sand. There’s no room for a full picnic blanket, but a small blanket, tray or mini camp table could have really helped.
For suggested picnic supplies, see What to Grill on the Trail – Swiss Style
Have you roasted sausages on the Böögg bonfire? Any other tips?
