A running of the bulls (, from the verb encerrar, 'to corral, to enclose'; , literally 'haste, momentum'; 'bulls in the street', or 'bull-runner') is an event that involves running in front of a small group of bulls, typically sixFiske-Harrison, Alexander (editor) The Bulls Of Pamplona, Mephisto Press, 2018 but sometimes ten or more, that have been let loose on sectioned-off streets in a town, usually as part of a summertime festival. Particular breeds of cattle may be favored, such as the in Spain, also often used in post-run bullfighting, and Camargue cattle in Occitan France, which are not fought. Bulls (non-castrated male cattle) are typically used in such events.
The most famous bull-run is the held in Pamplona during the nine-day festival of Sanfermines in honor of Saint Fermin. It has become a major global tourism event, today very different from the traditional, local festival. More traditional summer bull-runs are held in other places such as towns and villages across Spain and Portugal, in some cities in Mexico,"Bull-run hits liquor-fueled town", 2 February 2009. "The tradition, enacted in a handful of Mexican towns, traces its roots back to the centuries-old Pamplona bull-run in Mexico's former colonial power." Retrieved 4 March 2009. and in the Occitan (Camargue) region of southern France. Bull-running was formerly also practiced in rural England, most famously at Stamford until 1837.
History The event has its origins in the old practice of transporting bulls from the fields outside the city, where they were bred, to the bullring, where they would be fought and killed in the evening.According to the Mayor of Pamplona in his foreword to the book Fiesta: How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona During this "run", local youths would jump among them in a display of bravado. In Pamplona and other places, the six bulls that run are also in that afternoon's bullfight.
Spanish tradition holds that bull-running began in northeastern Spain in the early 14th century. Cattle herders who wanted to transport their animals from barges or from the countryside into city centers for sale or bullfights needed an easy way to move their precious animals. While transporting cattle in order to sell them at the market, men would try to speed the process by hurrying their cattle using tactics of fear and excitement. After years of this practice, the transportation and hurrying began to turn into a competition, as young adults would attempt to race in front of the bulls and make it safely to their pens without being overtaken.
Pamplona bull run
The Pamplona encierro is the most popular in Spain and has been broadcast live by , the public Spanish national television service, for over 30 years. It is the highest-profile event of the San Fermín festival, which is held every year from 6–14 July. The first bull running is on 7 July, followed by one on each of the following mornings of the festival, beginning every day at 8 a.m. The rules require participants to be at least 18 years old, run in the same direction as the bulls, not incite the bulls, and not be under the influence of alcohol.
This tradition is carried on each morning of festival, with the bulls being released from their corral at Calle de Santo Domingo to run along a barricaded route through the streets of the old quarter to the bullring at the Plaza de Toros. No longer being driven by their herders as in the past, the bulls are nowadays part of a spectacle in which a large group of runners run ahead of the bulls and attempt to beat them to the Plaza de Toros. The event has become so popular that it is a main feature of the San Fermin festival. The running of the bulls was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, but resumed 7–14 July 2022.
Fence In Pamplona, a set of wooden fences is erected to direct the bulls along the route and to block off side streets. A double wooden fence is used in those areas where there is enough space, while in other parts the buildings of the street act as barriers. The gaps in the barricades are wide enough for a human to slip through but narrow enough to block a bull. The fence is composed of approximately three thousand separate pieces of wood. Some parts of the fence remain in place for the duration of the fiesta, while others are placed and removed each morning. Spectators can only stand behind the second fence, whereas the space between the two fences is reserved for security and medical personnel and also for participants who need cover during the event.
Preliminaries
The encierro begins with runners singing a benediction. It is sung three times, each time being sung both in Spanish and Basque. The benediction is a prayer given at a statue of Saint Fermin, patron of the festival and the city, to ask the saint's protection and can be translated into English as "We ask Saint Fermin, as our Patron, to guide us through the encierro and give us his blessing". The singers finish by shouting " and ('Long live Saint Fermin', in Spanish and Basque, respectively). Most runners dress in the traditional clothing of the festival which consists of a white shirt and trousers with a red waistband () and neckerchief (). Also, some of them hold the day's newspaper rolled to draw the bulls' attention from them if necessary.
The running
A first rocket is set off at 8 a.m. to alert the runners that the corral gate is open. A second rocket signals that all six bulls have been released. The third and fourth rockets are signals that all of the herd has entered the bullring and its corral respectively, marking the end of the event. The average duration between the first rocket and the end of the encierro is two minutes, 30 seconds.
The encierro is usually composed of the six bulls to be fought in the afternoon, six steers that run in herd with the bulls, and three more steers that follow the herd to encourage any reluctant bulls to continue along the route. The function of the steers, who run the route daily, is to guide the bulls to the bullring. The average speed of the herd is .
The length of the run is . It goes through four streets of the old part of the city (Santo Domingo, Ayuntamiento, Mercaderes and Estafeta) via the Town Hall Square and the short section "Telefónica" (named for the location of the old telephone office at end of Calle Estafeta) just before entering into the bullring through its callejón (tunnel). The fastest part of the route is up Santo Domingo and across the Town Hall Square, but the bulls often became separated at the entrance to Estafeta Street as they slow down. One or more would slip going into the turn at Estafeta ("la curva"), resulting in the installation of anti-slip surfacing, and now most of the bulls negotiate the turn onto Estafeta and are often ahead of the steers. This has resulted in a quicker run. Runners are not permitted in the first 50 meters of the encierro, which is an uphill grade where the bulls are much faster.
Injuries, fatalities, and medical attention
Every year, between 50 and 100 people are injured during the run. Not all of the injuries require taking the patients to hospital: in 2013, 50 people were taken by ambulance to Pamplona's hospital, with this number nearly doubling that of 2012.
Goring is much less common but potentially life-threatening. In 2013, for example, six participants were gored along the festival route, in 2012, only four runners were injured by the horns of the bulls, with exactly the same number of gored people in 2011, nine in 2010, and 10 in 2009; one of these last group was killed. As most of the runners are male, only 5 women have been gored since 1974. Before that date, running was prohibited for women.
Another major risk is runners falling and piling up (a "montón", meaning "heap") at the entrance of the bullring, which acts as a funnel, as it is much narrower than the previous street, resulting in a crowd crush. In such cases, injuries come both from asphyxia and contusions to those in the pile and from goring if the bulls crush into the pile. This kind of blocking of the entrance has occurred at least ten times in the history of the run, the last occurring in 2013 and the first dating back to 1878. A runner died of suffocation in one such pile-up in 1977.
Overall, since record-keeping began in 1910, 15 people have been killed in the bull running of Pamplona, most of them due to being gored. To minimize the impact of injuries every day, 200 people collaborate in the medical service. They are deployed at 16 sanitary posts (every 50 metres on average), each one with at least a physician and a nurse among their personnel. Most of these 200 people are volunteers, mainly from the Red Cross. In addition to the medical posts, there are around 20 ambulances. This organization makes it possible to have a gored person stabilized and taken to a hospital in less than 10 minutes.
+ 15 deaths since 1910 in the bull run of Pamplona Year Name Age Origin Location Cause of death 1924 Esteban Domeño 22 Navarre, Spain Telefónica Goring 1927 Santiago Zufía 34 Navarre, Spain Bullring Goring 1935 Gonzalo Bustinduy 29 San Luis Potosí, Mexico Bullring Goring 1947 Casimiro Heredia 37 Navarre, Spain Estafeta Goring 1947 Julián Zabalza 23 Navarre, Spain Bullring Goring 1961 Vicente Urrizola 32 Navarre, Spain Santo Domingo Goring 1969 Hilario Pardo 45 Navarre, Spain Santo Domingo Goring 1974 Juan Ignacio Eraso 18 Navarre, Spain Telefónica Goring 1975 Gregorio Gorriz 41 Navarre, Spain Bullring Goring 1977 José Joaquín Esparza 17 Navarre, Spain Bullring Suffocated in a pile-up. 1980 José Antonio Sánchez 26 Navarre, Spain Town Hall Square Goring 1980 Vicente Risco 29 Badajoz, Spain Bullring Goring 1995 Matthew Peter Tassio 22 Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA Town Hall Square Goring 2003 Fermín Etxeberria 62 Navarre, Spain Mercaderes Goring 2009 Daniel Jimeno Romero 27 Alcalá de Henares, Spain Telefónica Goring
Dress code
Though there is no formal dress code, the very common and traditional attire is white trousers, a white shirt with a red cummerbund around the waist, and a red neckerchief around the neck. Some have large logos on their shirts; in the internet age, this is thought to be a way to highlight someone in a photo. This dress is to honor San Fermin, the center of the celebration, because of his martyr's death; the white outfits represent the purity and holiness of a saint, and the red kerchiefs (pañuelos), represent his death by decapitation. A common alternate color to red is blue.
Media
The encierro of Pamplona has been depicted many times in literature, television or advertising, but became known worldwide partly because of the descriptions of Ernest Hemingway in books The Sun Also Rises and Death in the Afternoon.
The cinema pioneer Louis Lumière filmed the run in 1899.Encierro de toros in the Spanish-language Auñamendi Encyclopedia.
The event is the basis for a chapter in James Michener's 1971 novel The Drifters.
The run is depicted in the 1991 Billy Crystal film City Slickers, where the character "Mitch" (Crystal) is gored (non-fatally) from behind by a bull during a vacation with the other main characters. Filmmakers traveled to Spain to shoot the actual running of the bulls with second unit director, Heston Fraser. City Slickers director Ron Underwood recreated the Pamplona location on the Universal Studios backlot to stage the running of the bulls with the actors.
The opening to the 2006 film Jackass Number Two features the running of the bulls, but on a suburban street rather than Pamplona. During the scene, The Ecstasy of Gold by Ennio Morricone is playing, with much of the cast being ran into by bulls, and Johnny Knoxville crashing through a house's window after introducing the movie.