San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain
We are here for a very short, but important time. We have come to the San Fermin Festival which includes the running of the bulls that Hemingway made famous AND we have tickets to a balcony to watch it. Pamplona is only a hour and a half away from St Jean de Luz but those bulls run in the early morning so commuting from St Jean de Luz was out of the question. Which also means we are still in Basque Country. On our drive we even see a couple of large signs/graffiti seeking independence for the region.
We arrive on a Saturday and the festival is in full swing. It is heavily a large outdoor music festival with an incredible amount of alcohol involved and oh there are bulls involved too. We find our hotel and the surrounding area is pretty quiet - I chose a hotel on the outskirts of the main town so it would be quiet, but close enough for us to walk to things. The few people wandering around all have the same basic outfit on white clothes or at least a white shirt, a red bandana around their neck and maybe a red sash around their waist. That is the official outfit of the festival and very heavily worn. We stand out in our clothing obviously we just arrived in town. We are given 2 scarfs each when we check into the hotel, unpack and then go off to explore some. Our goal is to find the meeting spot for the next morning since we have a 6:30am meet up time. We find the hotel which is right next door to a park where part of the festival is being held. We wander around for a little bit checking out all the booths - same as in the States, Tee shirts for the event, toys for kids, the usual stuff. There is a music stage off to one side and several vendors set up with large grills roasting a variety of meats and some veggies. We chose one close to the stage when a different entertainment group takes over. Without knowing it we have wandered into the Basque part of the festival. The food is Basque style with all the grilling, and we will see lots of regional dances and music sung for the next hour or so. We enjoyed our first evening and decide to call it a very early night by local standards since we have a very early morning wake up call waiting for us.
We leave the hotel the next morning at first light of day, but we are not alone on the streets. There are others dressed as us (all white with red scarf) some up early some just now going to bed. Many are heading the opposite way of us which makes me question if we are going right, yes we are. We get to the meeting spot which is a hotel front door and there are lots of people here and none of the signs seem right for us. I ask someone for help while Jeff listens to a man giving final advice to a large group of people he is leading to the starting point to run with the bulls. We heard stay within sight of the clock tower because there will be more runners than room so some may not be allowed to run and if you can't see the clock tower you can be cut from the run. Then they are off and another big group when I finally see ladies with the emblem from my tour company.
We get everyone together and we are off to find our balcony. Like many large sporting events, people whose homes are in a good location rent them out during the festival and leave town; we are headed for such a place. We find our house and go in and up to the second floor. It is a very nice living room with most of the furniture moved out and 2 balconies facing the Estafeta Street- main road for the running of the bulls. We are to be 9 people per balcony, only to discover ours is a little tighter because we have a TV camera set up in the corner. It is about 7am and the bulls do not start till 8am. There is juice, coffee and cookies to nibble on while we wait. We notice there are a lot of people milling about the street below us and our tour guide tells us that those people think they are running with the bulls but no they are not because the police will clear the street and then the street will be cleaned before the real runners. So, a few minutes later the pre spectacle to the one we came to see begins.
If you host an event that lasts 10 days or so every year for many years you tend to get the operational aspects of the event down pat. Pamplona is like that. When we were walking to our balcony building, we saw a staging area of ambulances/EMTs nearby and now we will see the local police in action. The police physically start to move the people - think lines of police forcing you to walk a certain way - in general a very civilized attempt by the police but they are not putting up with drunken fools either. They get one group out of the way and then they start moving up another group - there is a side street by us that they coerce them into and off of the course. After the street is cleared, then the cleaners come in manually sweeping and picking up every possible piece of trash and then a street cleaner machine. I figure it is for the bulls' benefit not the runners. I am surprised because I thought there were barricades that spectators could freely stand behind and find out later that is in a different small part of the course.
 |
| Left -Last nights revelers who think they are going to run Right - Police and then Street Cleaners have swept them away and not gently |
There are a lot of us on balconies watching the action. Our balcony is on the longest straight away of the course. Oh, the course is about a half mile long. More policemen show up ???? Then just to our left they form a straight line across the road close to a red painted line on the ground. Then people start to show up - LOTS of people. Our guide tells us that these are official runners, but they have chosen not to do the full course. The line is where they will start from.
 |
| The runners are ready We are ready The crowd is ready |
When the first rocket is launched signaling the start, these people take off as the police try to get out of the way. It makes me think of the start of a large road running race because the first ones are running but further back you walk for a while till you have the room to actually run. Also, many are taking up spots along the side of the road and are waiting for the action to catch up to them. Then we hear another rocket - the bulls are now on the run. Pretty quickly we see things happening below us. People are truly running then we see a couple of bulls in the middle of the road (think 1 lane) with people on their sides. The bulls are faster than most of the people. Then another group of bulls show up with lots of people around them too. Then we have the last straggler bulls followed by more people behind them. We then hear the 3rd rocket which means the bulls have made it to the stadium of the bull ring. People who have run with them go to the stadium too and are on the floor of the ring with them. Also in the ring are the professionals with their colored capes trying to corral the bulls into their pen. When that is accomplished, we hear the 4th and final rocket which means all the bulls are in the pen and it is over for the day. We all watch the last people on the street and other action and then go inside. Of course, on the TV the local channels are replaying the whole course and dissecting it (in Spanish). I realize one of the commentators ran at least part of the course because they are showing him on the course. They also cut over to a medical doctor because yes people were injured, and she is reporting that so far everyone who has been brought in was conscious and should be fine. The whole run took 2 minutes 53seconds which is longer than the 2 previous days. I also learn that it is unusual for the bulls to get separated into multiple packs and that usually they stay in one.
Make sure you have your sound on when you Click on the Video below
Below are some screen captures from the Video
Note the people who are falling all over each other
The streets are slippery
 |
| First bull and there are at least two people falling |
 |
| More and more bulls and people are falling like Dominoes |
 |
| A pile of people on left |
 |
| The Bulls were supposed to be in a pack instead of spread out like this |
 |
| What another one! |
After a few minutes, we head off to our hotel breakfast which will be followed by a walking tour of Pamplona. The idea of a tour of the city sounded good and was quite interesting but would prove a little challenging because as I said Pamplona knows how to run this festival. Yesterday was Saturday as in lots of people with lots of drinking, etc thus lots of trash. The town is madly cleaning the streets to get them in better shape for today's festivities. Notice I say better shape. This town suffers during this festival. Several times she starts one way and says no let's try this street instead. We stop in front of the town hall which is where the race and even the festival itself begins. Interestingly it is not in a central location. She then takes us to a nearby plaza where there is a bronze design in the ground, and she explains how there were 3 groups of people who inhabited Pamplona for a number of years, but they did not like each other so there lots of battles/fights until 1423 when the Privilege of the Union was formed and thus a neutral site for city hall was established. We then walked the course of the race with some sidetracks thanks to the cleaners. We saw the cathedral from the outside and we saw where the figurine of San Fermin is kept during the race and then we ended at the bull ring stadium. I should add that one of the 3 groups of people were pilgrims from the Camino del Santiago walk. They were largely French and decided to stay in Pamplona on their return route, so they were not liked by the natives who were descendants of the Basque tribes and native Spaniards. One of the early leaders of Pamplona suggested that the route for the Camino del Santiago should be clearly marked and made sure it included Pamplona.
After our tour, Jeff and I went to the cathedral first we toured and then we attended mass - it was a Sunday after all! As we are in the religious section, I should explain the meaning behind San Fermin Festival. San is Spanish for Saint. So Saint Fermin was a man from Pamplona who was an early Christian as in Roman times. He would become the first Bishop of the area and he would be beheaded by the Romans for his Christian beliefs. Thus the white clothing is for purity and the red scarf represents the beheading. Now I also heard something about the bull run portion started because a local butcher needed to move the bulls and butchers wear white. 
While the festival is internationally known for the bull run portion, it is also a large music festival, and it hosts a fireworks competition. The music festival includes multiple events each day. There were small parades with musicians wandering around the old town. Unfortunately, Jeff and I kept running into them as they were ending and getting a beer from a local bar. Also, there are 3 or 4 music venues set up. We went to the Basque one the first night, saw a children's area during the day on Sunday, I saw some pop music listed on one stage and then Sunday evening we visited a venue that was hosting traditional Spanish musicians (at least I think they were traditional). People my age and older were singing along with some of the songs and dancing to them. We had headed in that direction so we could end up near the citadel which is a park these days and during the festival the site of the nightly (yes nightly) fireworks display. I am not sure how it works, but somehow the nightly shows are competing for an award.
Turn your sound on and Click the video below
0 comments:
Post a Comment