More than Running...

Made world-famous by Ernest Hemingway’s book “The Sun Also Rises”, Pamplona’s San Fermin Festival is attended by over 1 million people each year.  Often referred to as the “Running of the Bulls”, this July festival runs for 8 days and hosts a variety of different activities for the whole family.  

The Iruna Cafe, Hemingway's beloved bar

Although this small city of 200,000 people prides itself on being "pretty quiet" for the remainder of the year, Pamplona (Iruna in Basque language) is also the first main city on the pilgrimage route of St. James (Camino de Santiago) thus attracting visitors throughout the year. 

The San Fermin Festival is held in honour of Saint Fermin, the son of a high-ranked Roman who went on to become the city’s first Bishop.  He was beheaded in France and is now considered a martyr in the Catholic Church.  Many believe that Saint Fermin actually met his end by being dragged through the streets with angry bulls running after him, which began the tradition.

The San Fermin festival is actually a merger of two different medieval events.  The first was the secular animal fairs that happened in town at the beginning of the summer.  The second was the religious ceremony honouring Saint Fermin in October.  In the 1500s, a decision was made to move the religious festival to the summer to take advantage of the good weather and thus combine the two events. 

Both children and adults come to the festival decked out in red and white, a tradition that started in the early 1900s.  The red neck scarves that everyone wears symbolize the blood of Saint Fermin when his head was cut off.  The popular sash accessory has less of a story and is more about the look.

To show up in anything but red and white would make you look completely out of place and so we ran around Barcelona before our trip attempting to find some suitable options.  It turns out though that we should have waited. Pamplona's streets were lined with shops and kiosks selling nothing but red and white paraphernalia.   Some stores even selling complete outfits for only 15 euros!

  

Although people of all ages go to the festival, the main group seemed to be those in their early 20s who came for the 24-hour party scene.  Free to walk around town with alcohol at any hour of the day or night, these young adults are often seen straggling home for a sleep and shower as most of the older attendees are making their way into the city at 6am to watch the Bull Run, which starts promptly at 8am.

With the majority of people gathered along Estefata Street or seated in the Arena to watch the Bull Run, the city cleaners work furiously to clean up the beer bottles, garbage and broken glass that has exploded on the city streets overnight.  They also wash down the streets and flood the drains to try and reduce the smell of urine which is surprisingly widespread and strong.  

Amazingly, by about 9;30am, when the children’s parade begins (complete with some giant and slightly creepy marching figurines) there is little evidence left of the previous night’s debauchery.

We decided to stay outside the city’s walls for our stay, mainly because it provided a quiet retreat from the madness of the festival.  And we welcomed it by midnight after the fireworks show ended and the party festivities in the Old Town were just getting started.  The festival’s wild and bustling feel was electric but made it powerfully clear to us that we are not in our 20s anymore…