The Spanish tradition of bullfighting

I am not going to go into details about bullfighting.  Nor am I going to defend it or trash it.  I don't have the right to do so and will not use this blog to debate it - although I know that everyone has their opinion as it's a very polemic subject.  So if you prefer not to read this post then that's fine with me... but I hope that it doesn't put you off the blog about Alicante life!

I took my nephew and auntie who were visiting from the UK as they were interested in the experience, otherwise I wouldn't have gone.  That's what happens frequently - lots of people are curious about it and the only way to decide if it's something that they want to appreciate is to go and see one.  Final outcome for the bull aside, would you know that you liked football if you had never seen a match?  In this post I would just like to give you some extra information about what goes on (not about the fight itself) if one day you are over here and want to go.

Ticket prices, seating and attire

Tickets for bullfights in Alicante can be bought directly at the ticket office in the bullring from a few weeks before the event or up to a few minutes before it if there are any spaces.  The prices of the seats depend upon the distance from the centre circle and if it is within the shady side (sombra) or the sunny side (sol) of the ring.  My seat cost 23€ and it was 15 rows back on the sunny side.  Tickets in the shady side are a lot more as the heat can be very uncomfortable in the sunny side and there is a premium for this.  However, as the event starts at 7pm the sun starts to set and no too long after (depending how high up you are sat) you could find yourself in the shade.  If you do sit in the sunny side be sure to take a hat, sunglasses and a fan with you though!

This photo above was taken about an hour and a half into the bullfight and you can see the shade creeping up the rows.  Usually at the 7pm start exactly half of the bullring is in the sun and half in the shade.  By the end, most or all of the seats are in the shade.  However, some people manage not to pay for the entrance fee but have to put up with the sun...

The rows are very close to each other and your knees are usually touching the back of the person sitting in front of you in the Alicante ring.  It's quite difficult to get to your seat, which is actually a bench, and you have to step on the rows of benches to get up or down to your numbered space from the entrance stairway into the ring (tendero).  As its also quite hot here in June I would recommend comfortable clothing and nothing that you mind getting messy as anything can happen from people spilling their beer to spectators getting excited and throwing their sandwiches in the air (yes, one landed on a lady in front of me at this one).

Some people hire white seat cushions at about 2€ each if they want to be more comfortable but I have never needed one.  These cushions get thrown onto the sand in the central ring after the event is over so that they can be collected easily but be careful - some people cannot throw straight and they end up falling quite hard on the people in the rows below! 

The Manzanares effect

Normal bullfights consist of 3 matadors (bullfighters) and 6 toros (bulls) from the same ganadero (ranch) and is organised like this:

Bull 1 - Bullfighter 1

Bull 2 - Bullfighter 2

Bull 3 - Bullfighter 3

Bull 4 - Bullfighter 1

Bull 5 - Bullfighter 2

Bull 6 - Bullfighter 3

The event that I went to was a mixed bullfight (corrida de toros mixta) with one of the bullfighters on horseback (rejoneo) and the other two as normal, and the bulls were from different ranches.  What was also special about this particular event was that two of the bullfighters were brothers and from Alicante itself.  The bullring was packed and I don't think that there was a seat left!

The two brothers are quite young and good-looking and are especially popular amongst fellow Alicantinos.  Manuel Manzanares was the bullfighter mounted on horseback and José María Manzanares fighting on foot.  The other bullfighter in this event was Enrique Ponce and is a very famous and experienced bullfighter.

I have to say that the three or so different horses that Manuel Manzanares used in his fight were all absolutely beautiful.  This is a special breed of horse kind of like the Spanish Lipizzaners, and they danced so elegantly and he managed them very well.  He carried out his task and it was very nice to see it done a different way.

Interesting information

As the bull comes out of the gate and into the ring, a board displays the origin of the bull, its ranch and its weight.  They are usually around 450kg to 520kg, which is a lot of bull!

The luck of the montera

A bullfighter's hat is called a montera.  One of the traditions that a bullfighter does when he is starting his fight is to take off his hat and throw it up in the air behind him.  If it lands the right way up then the bullfighter will have a 'luck'.  If it lands the wrong way up then maybe the fight will not have a good outcome for the matador.

The social occasion

I, like many others, find the atmosphere of a corrida de toros the most enjoyable thing about the event.  There are lots of excited people shouting olé, you can hear the various bands playing their trumpets and banging drums, and most of all you can take your own food and drink!  The friends who I go with usually take a cool box full of beers, french bread sandwiches (bocadillos) and bags of crisps and seeds (pipas) to snack on.  It is way after lunch time and before the Spanish evening meal time but just about everybody takes something along to consume.  The bullfights are about 2 and a half hours long and there is a break between the 3rd and 4th bull so naturally to the Spanish food and drink just accompany the social occasion.

Some people take a bota which is a bag made of leather to carry wine or drinks that a long time ago workers who were outside all day used to carry with them.

None, one or two - squeamish ones don't read this section please!

The quality of the fight is judged by an official group sitting in the balcony on the shady side with the red fabric cover.  They make their judgement but also spectators try to influence their decision by waving white handkerchiefs at them.  If the president thinks that the fight was very well done then he will quickly drape his long white handkerchief over the balcony.  If it was OK then he doesn't respond.  If it was an exceptional fight then he will drape this same white cloth twice.

This corresponds into the number of bulls ears that the bullfighter is awarded as a token.  They are cut off the the bull when he is dead in the ring (sorry!) and given to the bullfighter to take on his lap of honour.  The worst thing is that the bullfighter usually throws them into the crowd as a gift!  Yuk!!!

Lap of honour

The bullfighters do a lap of honour after each fight accompanied by their team and their fans throw them bunches of flowers and other gifts.  Sometimes, if hats or other personal items are thrown to the bullfighter, he picks it up and throws it back to the person, all as a sign of mutual respect.

Here is Manuel Manzanares doing his lap of honour in his rejoneo costume, not the typical traje de luces (suit of lights) that bullfighters wear because he worked on horseback.

Then as I mentioned before, at the end of the whole event, some people who hired a seat cushion throw it into the centre circle to be collected.  Watch your heads!

At the end of this bullfight (above), a small child ran into the ring and started to display his bullfighting skills!  I don't know how that went down with José María Manzanares as he was still doing his lap of honour on his team's shoulders.


So my nephew stuck it out until the end but my auntie left after the 3rd bull.  I totally understand but if you are curious then you might as well go and see one bullfight to be able to decide.  If you go, keep an open mind and also look at it as a traditional form of art and display bravery for the macho Spanish.

The beautiful sculptures that go up in flames! Part 2

I usually get on my scooter and visit the largest hogueras the day before they get set alight and burn to the ground.  With many of the streets being shut off to house these enormous sculptures and the temporary outdoor restaurants or barracas, it is the best way to get about.  However, there are over 90 hogueras around the city this year and its quite impossible to get to see them all so here are just a few from this year.

This one earned third place in the special category, which contain the largest structures with the largest budgets!

This is the official bonfire placed in front of the town hall.  This 'hoguera of the people' gets burned first each year.

The hoguera Calvo Sotelo displayed some rather fruity sculptures (last year's one was even more explicit!)... and yes, there are security guards 24 hours a day to make sure that the works of art are protected during the exhibition (lots of happy, drunk people on the streets + lots of large things on the street that are not normally there = mischief!)

The hoguera from Altozano featuring the famous wave pattern design of the Esplanade walkway.

And this one in front of the central market was probably the most fantastic one for me this year.  It featured a 10m high seated skeleton that looked down on us and probably frightened quite a few kids.

When these huge sculptures are set on fire at the end of the festival they make for a spectacular event accompanied by fireworks and firemen!

The beautiful sculptures that go up in flames! Part 1

As you have seen in my post about the construction of the hogueras, they take all year to design and make in the artists studio, then they are transported piece by piece to the site, and finally the team get a little more than a day to put it together and finish ready for the official judging.  The large hogueras in the 'Special Category' have to be brought to the site a couple of days earlier due to their central location in the city and the difficulty of their size.  This placing of the sculptures is called La Plantá and runs into the night to be ready for the deadline.

On 20th June, the children's hoguera is judged by the officials.  Next to each hoguera (pronounced 'hoggera') there is always one for children.  These smaller sculptures of about 2m tall are usually very cutely decorated with sweet colours and themes to attract the younger festival-goers.  Here are some examples of hogueras Infantiles.

This last sculpture pays homage to the Arabic culture that forms part of the history of Alicante and specifically the legend of the 'Moor's face' (whose profile can be identified in the rock which the castle sits on top of), Prince Alí and Princess Cántara.

On 21st June, the official judges visit all of the Hogueras, the entrances of the Barracas, and the decorated streets that are entered in the competition.  The winner is announced later in the day and they are presented with their titles.  These embroidered shields are displayed next to their work of art to indicate its final position in the competition.  There are different categories and different prize-givers.

This year the winning Hoguera in the Special Category is from the Foguerer Carolinas.  The structure is 80% wood and cost around 60,000€.  It represents the use of fire in these traditional fiestas of Alicante and also criticises political decisions like the rise in VAT on the cultural sector products and services from 8% to a shocking 21%.

I personally don't like the aesthetic of this sculpture and would have given first prize in this category to a different Hoguera, although I am unaware of the criteria that the judges have to follow.  I like the concept and style of the one that received second place in the Special Category...

This is the hoguera from La Cerámica and for me was the most interesting sculpture this year.  It is inspired by words by the poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and is very mysterious with the moon presiding over the night of the world, the night of time and the night of souls.  As men enter into the paradise of dreams through the garden of romance (the other side of the hoguera is large peacock) an avalanche of people deliver the ram of wishes and desires to liberate battles, tempests and challenges...

In part 2, I will show you more hogueras that were exhibited on the streets of Alicante during the festival this year and then burned!

Constructing 'Las Hogueras'

It takes many months to design and make the painted wood and paper sculptures and then days to put together the huge sections of the sculptures in situ that will then burn like bonfires on the night of 24th of June in just 20 minutes!

They do it for the love of the festival of Las Hogueras de San Juan.

In my previous post I talked a little about the history of the festival and why they burn these elaborate sculptures.  Each one depicts something that the neighbourhood want to criticise so that they can feel the satisfaction of burning them at the end of the fiestas.  Nowadays the scenes are usually full of effigies of political figures or celebrities that the common people are unhappy with around a large central figure or concept.  They are beautifully done and the detail is amazing.

These sculptures can be up to 25m in height and they are an engineering feat in themselves, with the artist having to consider the constraints of the location, such as lamp posts and street signs, the pavements and slopes of streets, the buildings close by (and I do mean close!)... Even how to get them there from the workshop. They also have to take into account how the sculpture will burn so that it falls in on itself and not towards the crowd which can be thousands of people!  Firemen are on hand at every bonfire to ensure the complete safety of the spectators, and they also join in the fun (more on that in a later post!).


I have taken some photos of just a couple of the 90 or so Hogueras dotted around Alicante in the construction stage so that you can appreciate the hard work that goes in to making these works of art.

The history of the Hogueras de San Juan festival

Las Hogueras de San Juan (the bonfires of St. John)

The origins of this festival started many many centuries ago when Spanish towns and villages celebrated the Summer Solstice with purifying bonfires. In the Alicante area, the agricultural workers celebrated the longest day of the year for harvesting and the shortest night that bad spirits that could possibly come and harm them.  In time, the town joined in the celebrations but in the early 19th Century the local council prohibited fireworks, rockets or bonfires in the streets.

In 1881, the local council forgot to publish the warning that usually carried a fine for anyone disobeying these rules, and the neighbourhoods came together to take advantage by holding street parties.  They constructed bonfires but instead of the normal stack of wood and leftovers, they made grotesque figures of people that the neighbours criticised during that year.  However, after that year, many wealthy locals didnt want these celebrations to continue  because they thought that it projected a bad image of Alicante and once again the festivities were not allowed to take place.

An associacion called Alicante Atracción was created in 1928 to try to boost tourism in the town, and being inspired by las Fallas that are celebrated in Valencia on 19th March each year, they wanted to modify the Hogueras (bonfires) festival to make it offical and an important attraction for the town.  The proposition was accepted and it was reported that more than 100,000 people watched the bonfires burn that first 'offical' year.

The Valencians criticised the Alicantinos for 'copying' their festival, however this just spurred the locals on to make the Hogueras festival bigger and better every year.  A few years later the first Belleza del Fuego (beauty queen of the fire) contest was introduced so that the festival had a representative and a focal figure.  The participating neighbourhoods select a woman and a girl to put forward to compete for this prestigious title and they head up the various processions and events that happen during this fiesta.  They wear a traditional costume of agricultural origins from the 19th Century and very little has changed during these years keeping them as original as possible.

There are many events taking place during these fiestas that run from 20th til 24th of June each year (regardless of the day of the week) like bullfights and flower offerings to the Virgin Mary, and there are also many things happening before and after these dates.  The bonfires are lit at midnight on 24th June and signify the end of the show!

I will post more information about the various events as I just wanted to give a little run down of the history of the festivity for your information first.  I hope that you are able to come and enjoy the festival one day that is declared to be of International Turistic Interest and, of course, the Offical Festival of the City of Alicante. 

Biar castle

At the weekend, our friends invited us for a BBQ lunch at their family house in Banyeres de Mariola in the Sierra de Mariola.  On the way back to Alicante in the late afternoon we decided to stop off to check out the castle in Biar.  I had never been past this village before and it just intrigued me to see this well-preserved little fortress sitting strategically on top of a hill as we drove past.

We drove up through the winding, narrow streets of Biar village, which is a typical place where nothing much really happens.  These types of villages are full of old people because young people and families usually move to the city for work, opportunities and facilities.  It was empty, probably due to the afternoon heat, and very peaceful.

The view from the castle grounds down on to the village was lovely.

Unfortunately, when we got to the castle door it was closed as it was so late in the day.  So I will have to go back another day to see inside.

See the beautiful blue skies we have here in Alicante!  Not a cloud at all.

The castle has had a long history with modifications by its occupants dating back to the Middle Ages.  This area of Spain was part of the Moorish kingdom during various centuries and have also left their mark on the castle.  The Torre del Homenaje, or Homage Tower, dates back to the 12th Century and is the most ancient and most distinguished part of the castle whose vault is decorated with overlocking arches.  The perimeter walls that you can see in the photos above were erected after the Christian conquest in 1245.

In prehistoric times, this site was chosen as a settlement and an 'eternal' resting place.  In some of the natural caves on the hill, human remains have been found as well as tools and objects that accompanied these settlers on their final journey.  These objects are in the Municipal Museum.

This area has lots of small castles which are well worth a visit on the Vinalopó route.  I haven't been inside this castle yet but from the outside it looks to be in a relatively good state compared to other castles around here, which are almost in ruins.  Just check the visiting hours before making the journey!

Some information courtesy of Castillo de Biar tourist information.