Sitting on the Sidelines for San Fermin’s Most Well-Known Tradition

I’m not sure if the people or the bulls are the more dangerous threat at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona.

The numbers definitely favor the people in terms of danger. On average, 2,000 daredevil runners share the streets with the eight to 10 bulls that are released each morning of the festival. So the likelihood of even coming in contact with one of beasts is not very high. However, getting jostled, tossed and thrown to the ground by your fellow runners during the half-mile course is. As a matter of fact, the last person to meet his end by the horn of a bull was nearly 15 years ago, but I watched one poor girl with a very large, muddy footprint in the middle of her back get carted away in an ambulance and treated for a spine injury.

So let’s end the suspense. I did not run with the bulls. I prefer to watch stupid acts by stupid people rather than participate in stupid acts as a stupid person. Forgive the pun, but I’ve never been one to join the herd.

With that being said, watching the running of the bulls is quite a thrilling sight. Most of the runners packing the streets were finishing off beers from the previous night’s parties just minutes before the 8 a.m. run. However, when the warning rockets goes off and the San Fermin blessing is recited to bring protection to the runners, everyone, runner or observer, falls quite and a spring-loaded concentration fills the silence.

It’s quick, as in, if you close your eyes for very long at the wrong moment, you may miss it, but when the bulls part the Red Sea that is the runners attempting to stay ahead of them, the excitement is nothing short of an adrenaline shot. Some may scratch their heads, mentally recalling the romantic notions they had of San Fermin fueled by its popularization in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises,” and say to themselves, “That’s it?”

To that I would say, a lightning strike is instantaneous in duration, but it nonetheless lights the sky in brilliance in that instant.

The runners of San Fermin recite the blessing three times for protection during the run using rolled up newspapers to emphasize the point.

The police presence is understandably strong during each run. However, they are more in place to corral the runners than the bulls. The police take the run very seriously and though I didn't personally witness this, I was told they have have been known to throw runners who attempt to leave the route by climbing on the protective walls back into the street. If you decide to run, just know that you are expected to be in it until the end.