The San Fermin Festival & Running of the bulls

What: The World’s Largest Fies­ta, the San Fer­min Fes­ti­val in Pam­plona is also home to the renowned Run­ning of the Bulls fes­ti­val where dar­ing rev­el­ers do their best to out­run six fight­ing bulls through half a mile of the streets of Pam­plona, which are being led by six tamed bell-oxen to the Pam­plona bull ring.

Each run begins with par­tic­i­pants recit­ing a prayer in front of a stat­ue of San Fer­min, fol­lowed by the release of a rock­et to alert the fes­ti­val goers that the bulls are in posi­tion, with a sec­ond rock­et indi­cat­ing the bulls are run­ning, a third indi­cat­ing that the bulls have reached the bull ring and a final rock­et released to show the streets are safe again for the gen­er­al pub­lic – with the whole process tak­ing around 10 min­utes.

Along­side the bull run the San Fer­min fes­ti­val is also an oppor­tu­ni­ty for both cel­e­bra­tion and reflec­tion, with the fes­ti­val begin­ning with San­gria and wine before the famous ‘Chupina­zo’ a huge rock­et is fired at mid-day to sig­nal the start of the fes­ti­val, with the full nine days involv­ing not just the best of Span­ish cui­sine and drink, but also fea­tur­ing a pro­ces­sion, par­ties, a roar and the finale involv­ing a ‘Poor Me’ event, in which atten­dees mourn the end of the fes­ti­val but also look for­ward to the fol­low­ing years San Fer­min.

When: The San Fer­min fes­ti­val takes place each year from the 6^th – 14^th July, with the bull runs begin­ning on the 7^th at 8am sharp, with run­ners required to be in posi­tion by 7am.

Where:  The San Fer­min fes­ti­val and Bull run is held in Pam­plona, with the bull run begin­ning in San­to Domin­go and wind­ing through the nar­row streets of Pam­plona before fin­ish­ing in the cities bull­ring.

Dura­tion: The San Fer­min fes­ti­val lasts for nine days, with the bull runs tak­ing place on eight sep­a­rate days,  begin­ning on the 7^th July and end­ing on the 14th. With each bull run begin­ning at 8am and last­ing until all six bulls have com­plet­ed the 826 mile course which nor­mal­ly takes between 3–6 min­utes.

Tick­ets:  The run­ning of the bulls is free to par­tic­i­pate in – although you have to be over 18 and sober – the Pam­plona police are also very vig­i­lant and will with­draw any­one not fol­low­ing the rules. Run­ners need to be at the start line before 7am and cam­eras and inap­pro­pri­ate foot wear will also see you barred. For those want­ed to wit­ness the bull run but not par­tic­i­pate  there is the option to pur­chase bal­cony spaces on Estafe­ta Street (see more infor­ma­tion for pur­chas­ing options) or alter­na­tive­ly spec­ta­tors have the cheap­er option of street lev­el view­ing at Tele­fon­i­ca, Plaza Con­sis­to­r­i­al or Mer­caderes street – how­ev­er spaces in these streets are lim­it­ed and spec­ta­tors are encour­aged to arrive at 5am to grab a spot.

Need to Know: It’s tra­di­tion when attend­ing San Fer­min and par­tic­i­pat­ing in the bull run to wear white with a red neck­tie of sash. It’s also encour­aged to book a bal­cony well in advance for best view­ing of the bull run­ning.

More Infor­ma­tion: The offi­cial Pam­plona bull run web­site (https://www.bullrunpamplona.com/) has fur­ther details about the San Fer­min fes­ti­val and the bull run, includ­ing the option to pur­chase Bal­cony Tick­ets and the tra­di­tion­al San Fer­min out­fit.