For the first time in three years, bulls have been tearing through the streets of Pamplona, and as part of the contentious San Fermin festival, five people have been sent to the hospital.
As crowds of people crowded the cobblestone track, six fighting bulls led by six domestic oxen surged through the streets in a chaotic 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
No one was gored, but a few people suffered bumps and falls, and in the bullring at the end of the course, one person was thrown around and lifted into the air.
According to the Pamplona hospital, five individuals required to be brought in for treatment: two bullring victims, a child under the age of 18, a second guy with a leg injury, and a man who had a knock to the head from a fall.
The day’s activities will include copious amounts of drinking, eating, and attendance at cultural events after the first of eight early-morning bull runs.
During the final festival of 2019 before the pandemic, eight persons were gored. Since 1910, sixteen people have perished during bull runs. The final passing happened in 2009.
Bullfights are held in the late afternoon to kill the bulls that run every morning.
Due to the pandemic, the wildly popular celebrations that annually bring tens of thousands of tourists from all over the world were postponed in 2020 and 2021.
Yesterday’s festivities began with revelers dousing one another in wine in a crowded Pamplona square.
The official beginning of the nine-day fiesta, the “chupinazo” firework launch from the balcony of the northern city’s town hall, signaled the beginning of the mayhem at midday.
Thousands of revelers from all over the world responded ecstatically, shouting Viva San Fermin! and dousing one another in wine. Most were dressed in the traditional all-white outfit with a red scarf.
The audience applauded enthusiastically as they passed enormous yellow inflatable balls over their heads and waved their red scarves in the air while dozens watched from packed apartment balconies even though it was lightly raining.
“The rain is irrelevant.” Saioa Guembe Pena, a 54-year-old public worker whose white blouse was already stained pink with red wine and sangria, said it was wonderful to see the square crowded once more.
The last occurrence of the yearly celebration, made popular by Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, was in 2019.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced local officials to postpone the extremely popular festival in 2020 and the following year, marking the first time since Spain’s 1936–1939 civil war that the celebration had been postponed.
The town hall reported that about 10,000 people crowded into Pamplona’s main square for the start of the festivities this year, and thousands more crowded into side streets and other squares to watch the start on huge screens.
John Lupson, a 22-year-old Australian student who traveled to Spain for the festival, stated, “It’s simply crazy, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Everyone seems to be having a great time, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, leaning on one other, and yelling and singing loudly.
Many partygoers began imbibing hours before the ‘chupinazo,’ lounging on outdoor patios or ambling around Pamplona’s winding, cobblestone streets with enormous plastic bottles of sangria in hand.
After two years, we really wanted to return to it because, according to David Navarras, a 27-year-old Spanish student, “it’s part of the city’s identity.”
The festival, which has roots in the Middle Ages, includes performances, religious processions, traditional dancing, and nonstop drinking.