Fiesta de San Fermin
It’s coming up for that time of year again…
Time to pack your kit and make your way over to the normally sleepy town of Pamplona in Spain, and rev it up for Spain’s biggest party: The Festival of San Fermin, also known as The Running of the Bulls.
During San Fermin, an eight-day-long fiesta starting every year on the 6th of July, avid festival-goers decide to step things up a notch, and partying goes on all night every night.
To give you an idea of what it’s all about, we’ve selected a number of first-hand accounts gathered from the ever-generous world wide web.
Last year, Sue and a bunch of student friends bussed in from Salamanca to check out the festival:
> ‘We started walking towards the center
of the city (The Plaza de Los Torros). A sea of people in white and red filled the streets, the bars, the bathrooms, everywhere! Every so
often a small parade of people would run through the streets chanting the San Fermín fight song.’
‘I survived San Fermín 2005!’, she exclaims. No mean feat, that, considering the length and extreme nature of the event. Even if you’re not intending on waving your rump at stir-crazy bulls, this festival can take it out of you:
> ‘It was a night full of extremes. Extremely little sleep, extremely fun, extremely dirty, extremely crazy.’
Jess K , from Rochester, New York, was also there in 2005. She came in by train, stashed her luggage at the station, and joined the fray:
> ‘It was a CRAZY all night party… we stayed up all night and then went and slept on the benches at the train station for 45 minutes or so, got up and go ready to go watch the bulls. We got there and everyone decided to run except me! I just couldn´t do it. So, I found a decent place to watch and it was over in a split second! It was just nuts…’
In ‘The Tale of a Pamplona Virgin’ newby Ellie Law describes her first time:
> ‘I had been warned it would be an experience that I would not forget, but nothing prepared me for the mayhem that waited round the corner in the central square. As I entered the main arena I was swamped with people, all screaming, shouting, laughing and drinking. It was the biggest party in the world –and I had just begun to join in. It was a wall of sound and smells –from the exotic to the mundane, from scent to stench – my senses were assaulted at every turn.’
Sounds like fun, hey?
Anyone out there planning to head to Pamplona this year for the fiesta? Should you survive the bulls, the sangria and the general mayhem we’d love to hear your stories so give us a shout
(Photo: Jess K)
Posted in Destinations, Festivals
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