Every year on the second weekend in September, Zürich hosts Knabenschiessen, a shooting contest for teens accompanied by a big carnival with junk food and rides. It lasts three days, from Saturday through Monday, which is a school holiday, though most businesses are open. This is the oldest public festival in Zürich, dating back to the 17th century. The carnival is the biggest in Switzerland and attracts over 800,000 visitors.
The carnival part is pretty obvious. But I never understood the shooting contest. So I went with my 15 year old this year and despite my aversion to guns, it was pretty fun. So here are some details if your teen wants to do it.
What is this shooting contest?
On Saturday and Sunday of the festival, about 5000 youth shoot in the qualifying round. The top scorers have a final round on Monday. The contest is held in an indoor shooting hall at the far side of the upper level of carnival, where you register and shoot.
There are about 35 stations in a long row. Each station has a shooting expert who shows the youth how to use the gun and gives them pointers. The teen lays down on a platform and aims a rifle that is propped on a stand. Anyone can enter the shooting hall and watch the action.
They shoot a rifle at a target about 300m away. They get 5 shots. Each shot gets a maximum of 7 points: 1 point for hitting the target and a point value from 1-6 depending on how close they get to the bullseye. Maximum total points: 35
We happened to see the girl shoot who was tied for 1st place with a score of 34. She was super excited and got interviewed on TV.
Ear protection is free and provided for anyone shooting and observers. They also provide an eye patch if you have trouble squinting one eye.
The targets are electronic, so you can immediately see where you hit the target on a computer screen, both at your station and shown above for spectators. Each station is numbered and shows up on this board.
When you are done shooting, you get a printout with your score on each shot and total score. If you scored high enough for a prize, you get a prize voucher as shown below.
Who can participate
Girls and boys aged 13 – 17 can participate, based on the year of birth. So it includes kids that will turn 13 that year. In 2022, kids born in 2005 thru 2009 can participate.
The teen must either live in Zürich canton, go to school or have an apprenticeship in Zürich canton, or have one parent that lives in Zürich canton.
You do not need experience shooting guns. For many teens, this is their first time shooting a gun, as it was for my son and many of his friends. Even with no experience, some kids score very high and win prizes.
How to register
You can register online from early August through Sunday of the event. You can also register onsite as shown below. In either case, you have to check in with your ID and pay a fee to participate. In 2019, we had to pay CHF 12 in cash. We went at 16:30 on Saturday and there was basically no line. I read online that it’s busiest at 10-12:00 Sat and Sun mornings.
Prizes
Part of the fun for my kids was looking at the prizes, which are pretty good for the top 300 or so. They had big dreams and were hopeful they would place in the top 200 and get one of these awesome prizes shown below.
The overall winner gets CHF 5,000, spends a day with the army, and is famous in Zürich for the year. 1st place in each age category wins CHF 500 cash. Typical score for winners is 34.
For a score between 32-35, you get a big prize like a snowboard, GoPro, drone, or bike but randomly assigned based on your final rank.
For a score between 28-31, you get a medal and can select a smaller prize immediately from the prize room. My son scored 29 and got to choose between a Swiss army knife, power bank or reusable water bottle. Different prizes were available depending on your score.
His friend scored 27 and got a Swiss army knife but didn’t get to visit the prize room and also did not get a medal. I don’t know what the minimum score is to get a knife.
Every participant gets a voucher for food, either a burger, sausage or fries from a booth directly outside the shooting hall.
There are also special registration categories: Jugendmusik, Stadtquartier, and Pfadi. If you register in one of these categories, you can win other prizes than mentioned above. There is also a class competition, where you can register your whole school class and the total score of the class competes against other classes.
The carnival
Most people come just for the carnival (runs Sat through Mon), which is exactly what you might expect. Lots of food stands, random junk for sale, and lots of sketchy rides that are quite expensive (CHF 15 for the big rotating stick shown below). At night everything is lit up and there’s loud music.
It’s semi fun to wander but a serious crush of people and hard to navigate, especially with strollers. I noticed police officers at the entrance giving ID wristbands to parents so they could write their contact info and put the wristband on their child. I thought this was very cool.
Getting There
The festival is in southwest Zürich city, near Sihlcity and Brunaupark. The roads are closed to both traffic and trams. It’s best to come by public transportation. The closest you can get is the Laubegg tram stop. From there, you simply walk up the street following the crowds.
It’s about a 15 min uphill walk (1km) from there to reach the shooting hall as shown below. The shooting hall is at the top of the carnival, at the back behind all the amusements.
If you are coming by car, it will be very tough to find parking. We saw long lines of cars waiting to park in the Migros Brunau car park, a fool’s errand for sure. You might try the Brunau car park that is nearby, but I think that will fill up quickly too.
