Zurich festivals and events
A snowman is blown up in April, a million people dance through the streets in August, and the lights go on along Bahnhofstrasse in November.
Zurich’s calendar has a few fixed points that are worth planning around, and one that is worth avoiding if crowds are not your thing.
Sechseläuten — third Monday in April
The city’s own festival, and the strangest.
The guilds parade through the centre in historic costume, on foot and on horseback, to the Sechseläutenplatz by the opera house. There, at six in the evening precisely, they set fire to a bonfire with a large snowman made of cotton wool and explosives on top of it — the Böögg, representing winter.
The time it takes for the head to explode is taken as a forecast for the summer: a quick bang means a warm one, a slow burn means a poor one. The record is under six minutes; the worst is over half an hour. It is reported on the evening news with a straight face, and the correlation with actual weather has been studied and found to be nil.
The parade is free, the square fills early, and the whole city takes the afternoon off.
Street Parade — second Saturday in August
One of the largest technoparades in the world: around a million people, thirty-odd sound systems on lorries, and a route round the lake basin.
It has run since 1992 and it takes over the entire city centre for a day and a night. Hotels are booked out months ahead, trains run all night, and normal life stops.
If that is what you want, it is the biggest event of its kind in Europe. If it is not, do not be in Zurich that weekend — there is no version of the city that day that is not the parade.
Züri Fäscht — every three years, early July
The largest public festival in Switzerland, held only once every three years, over three days: fireworks over the lake, stages along both banks, funfair rides, and something like two million visitors.
The next dates are published years ahead. If it coincides with your trip, stay; if not, you have not missed something that happens annually.
Christmas
From late November the lights go up along Bahnhofstrasse — a suspended installation of thousands of LEDs — and several markets open.
The one in the main station is among the largest indoor Christmas markets in Europe, with a tree hung with Swarovski crystal. Wienachtsdorf at Sechseläutenplatz and the Niederdorf market are the more agreeable ones, and there is a smaller, better-tempered market at the Werdmühleplatz where a choir of children sings from a wooden tree every evening.
New Year
Fireworks over the lake at midnight, from the Bürkliplatz end. The other tradition is going up Uetliberg — the trains run through the night on 31 December, and the hill is full of people watching the fireworks from above the city, which is a better view than being underneath them.
Dress for it. It is 870 m and it is December.
The rest of the year
- Zurich Film Festival — late September and early October, and increasingly serious
- Caliente — Latin music festival in July, filling the Helvetiaplatz area
- Theaterspektakel — three weeks of outdoor performance on the lakeshore in August
- Knabenschiessen — a shooting competition for teenagers in September, dating from the seventeenth century, with a funfair attached
- Öffnungszeiten — most markets and events pause in the two weeks around the summer school holidays
For the events elsewhere in the country, see festivals in Switzerland and the pages for Basel, Lucerne and Geneva, which all have carnivals or festivals of their own.
Updated: