The Schützenfest commemorates the town's rich German heritage and their German founder, Conrad Ehrhardt, an immigrant from Weiterode Kurhessen, Germany.
In 1529 Eric allowed the town of Hanover to hold an annual Schützenfest ("shooting festival"), which today has become the Hanover Schützenfest, the largest of its kind in the world.
In 1887, Grapetown combined its sängerbund (singing club) and schützenbund (shooting club), and in 1895 Grapetown became the host of the first annual Gillespie County Schützenfest (German "marksmen's festival").