Run With the Bulls in Pamplona – If You Dare

The writer Ernest Hemingway put the Spanish town of Pamplona firmly on the map when he visited in 1923 to watch the annual running of the bulls. He returned year after year.

Since then millions have descended on this undistinguished Spanish town on the edge of the Pyrenees. Most come to watch the manic, vibrant San Fermin Festival, but other brave (or mad) individuals come to run with the bulls.

The festival lasts for nine days and every morning at eight o’clock a rocket is set off and six bulls are released from a pen at the entrance to the town centre and allowed to charge through the narrow streets.

The mozos, or runners – traditionally dressed in the Basque uniform of white trousers, shirt, and red bandana – await the opportunity to run with the charging bulls. It is like surfers waiting for a good wave. The runners try to find a good bull and run with it as closely as possible. A good run will only last 20 or 30 seconds; any longer is to invite disaster.

Amateur mozos are everywhere along the route and they can often come to grief due to a mixture of inexperience and alcohol. There are unfortunately one or two bad accidents every year, some of which have proved fatal.

In less than three minutes it is all over and the boarding is taken down from the shop-fronts. The runners retire to the nearest bar to have breakfast, watch the re-run on TV and prepare for a day of fiesta before the next morning’s bull run, when it starts all over again.

Solmar Villas can provide a wide range of great value holiday villas in Spain for anyone wishing to experience the running of the bulls in Pamplona.