Pamplona in Review: Running of the Bulls ’09

Travelled by Guest Writer on 17 July 2009 | 3 Comments

Pamplona in Review: Running of the Bulls ’09
Pamplona in Review: Running of the Bulls ’09

From the exuberant opening event, the Chupinazo, to the final closing event, the Pobre de Mi, this festival has been 9 full days of non-stop fiesta. It’s hard to put into words the atmosphere here – people from all over the world celebrating throughout the city – all wearing the same white and red traditional costume.

People fill the park, dance behind marching bands in the streets, gather in plazas at the various live music stages and crowd into bars for sangria, calimocho and the famous pinchos. And that’s at night.

As the sky begins to lighten, heavy wooden fences are constructed for the daily bull run. Two hours before the launch of the 8am rocket which signals that the bulls are loose, all-night partyers gather along the famous route, waiting for a good spot to watch the excitement.

After the running of the bulls, the daytime San Fermin fills up with families who come to see the traditional events of dancing giants, rural Basque sports and live music.

This was an action packed and unique year for the annual San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain. Though this is my first festival, I’ve been preparing for this event for the past four months, managing the content for BullRunning.com, a new website launched by the same regional media group which owns Pamplona’s famous newspaper, Diario de Navarra. While I’ve been told the crowds were not so massive as in years past, I could not have imagined more people filling the small plazas and narrow cobblestone streets of Navarra’s capital city.

2009 will be an especially infamous year because of the death that occurred last Friday. Daniel Jimeno Romero, from Madrid, died from a horn puncture to his neck. The first bull related death in 15 years, he was gored by a particularly aggressive bull named “Capuchino,” which was separated from the rest of the group near the beginning of the run. A lone bull is especially dangerous because they get disoriented and stop in the middle of the run, distracted by runners and spectators. This happened during the bull runs of July 10th and 12th and these turned out to be the most tense and bloody days.

By far, the most dramatic running of the bulls was the July 12th “encierro” which lasted a full 5 minutes. A bull named “Ermitaño” got separated early in the run and wreaked havoc throughout the half-mile course. Near the end of the course, the bull (from the Miura ranch) gored a man in the tunnel entrance to the bull ring. Ermitaño tossed the man several meters and then proceded to gore him repeatedly, until the pastores finally goaded the bull into the bull ring.

Besides this year’s tragedy, 2009 will also be remembered for very fast runs. The majority of the runs lasted only about two and a half minutes. At 2 minutes and 18 seconds, the last (July 14) run was the fastest; just 10 seconds shy of the historic record.

This year also will be immortalized in 3D film. A British director and Spanish production company are making a 3D IMAX documentary feature film. Their cameras could be seen suspended on a cable above Estafeta street and at every major event. The documentary is set to be released in late 2010.

As the city cleans up the foul smells of 9 days of excessive partying, many people are protesting the event in light of the recent fatality. The mayor of Pamplona, Yolanda Barcina, has reaffirmed coordination of new safety measures for the Running of the Bulls. The local government bodies have showed support for these changes.