Running with the bulls in Pamplona

Just a quick post...
I was chatting to a foreigner (as in non-Spanish person) the other day about the festival of San Fermín in Pamplona and it's famous daily event of running with the bulls.´ I was surprised to realise that this person didn't know the reason for this activity, especially since she was 'anti-taurina' (against bullfighting).

The encierro (closing in) of the bulls takes place at 8am every day from 7th until 14th July every year.  (Like with most Spanish festivals it is the date that determines the festival period, not the day of the week).  It consists of leading the 6 bulls (and 8 'cabestros' or bulls of a type of race who are not used in bullfights but guide the 'toros') from the pens where they spent the previous night through the narrow streets of the old part of Pamplona to the bullring where they will be 'fought' later in the day by the bullfighters... and consequently killed.

There is a long history associated with this and is worth looking up if you want to learn more about this and the festival in general. 

The person whom I was speaking with was under the impression that it was just a fun activity for brave people who wanted to have a go at running with bulls but there is a whole lot more to it than that.  Also, the festival in itself hosts many traditional events and activities apart from the encierros.

There seems to be much misinterpretation about it because in the 2010 film with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz called Knight and Day, a part of their chase through the streets of Seville featured a load of bulls running and people dressed in the traditional white and red of the San Fermín festival ending up in the bullring.  But this activity never takes place in Seville, which is over the other side of the country to Pamplona!

There are bull-related activities that take place in various towns and villages in the north east of Spain which I really don't agree with and think are awful.  The worst is the 'toro embolado', which consists of tying flammable materials to a bulls horns, setting them alight along with some fireworks, and letting it loose through barricaded streets at night during the festival period.  People run in front of it and jump over protective barriers, they pull the bull's tail and just generally torment it.  It's just not nice.  Look it up if you want to inform yourself because I just don't want to write about it.

I will write about something nice like the weather in Alicante next time...