San Fermin 2008

Five days stay for SAN FERMIN: It sit it for my liver.Ah!!!!!!!!!And care with the bulls, that it is necessary to return

Hehehehe... I too am looking forward to San Fermin. Wow, I love watching The Running of the Bulls. What I DON'T like is waking up at 7:30 every morning to watch the pre-run coverage for the 8am running - but I do.

And not surprisingly, the Fería de San Fermin bullfights are not being televised except on Pay-per-View. I'll pass.

Saludos, MadridMan

I love being in Spain during the Sanfermines! I know it is difficult to wake up early to watch, but it is also very exciting...and the commercials are also so good. Los asparagus de Navarra...los toros...I love it! I will be in Argentina, but I will be thinking of Spain...as always! ¡Viva San Fermín! San Fermín website

San Fermin, the great party, you put the limits your

Esperanza writes: Here in the USA (even the Bronx) the National/International News always shows a clip of the Encierro and gives a count of the drunken runners who got gored those first days of the San Fermines. In this day of Satellite TV it seems like you should be able to see some of those reports on Spanish language TV in Buenos Aires, Argentina or from Montevideo, or Punta del Este, Uruguay

Tomorrow/Sunday at 11am starts the Opening Ceremonies, "El Chupinazo", for San Fermin from the balcony of the Casa Consistorial. You've probably all seen the huge gathering in the main square to announce the beginning of the festival.

The bull runs begin Monday, July 7th and the last bull run will be Monday, July 14th.

This year, Channel 4 - CUATRO - is covering tomorrow's 11am "El Chupinazo" and all the runs with coverage beginning at 7:15am for the 8am event. Watch LIVE and online at http://www.cuatro.com/microsites/sanfermin2008/ - or at http://www.MadridMan.com/pamplona/pamplona.html

Saludos, MadridMan

P.S. I see an entire week of sleep-less, errr.. less-sleep nights in my immediate future. Zzzzz....
Days, Times, and Events at: http://www.fiestasdesanfermin.com/sf2008/programa/index.asp?sId=9

GREAT NEWS!! TVE is ALSO covering today's "Chupinazo" (11am) and Monday-to-Monday's Running of the Bulls (8am) in Pamplona!

Right now I'm watching TVE's coverage of the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in preparation for the Chupinazo.

And while the bulls don't run by it, check out Pamplona's Plaza del Castillo live webcam at http://www.concisegroup.com/webcam.htm .

Saludos, MadridMan

I'm watching through bloodshot eyes ( Gay pride ) ..Man it's soooo HOT again !

It's crazy , no ! The guys are already drunk .. And infront of those huge bulls ... Man ....

The runnings begin tomorrow so there won't be any drunkards in front of raging bulls this morning.

Wow! What a party there is in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento awaiting the (late-coming) Chupinazo! I don't think I'd like to be in the middle of that sea of people. All those people are covered in red wine, sweat, and whatever else. I can only imagine the work the hotel cleaning people will have before them each day with those nasty, stained white towels.

I wonder what's delaying the Chupinazo! I thought it was to start at 11am but maybe that was the time of the official television coverage by the CUATRO. UPDATE: They just said the Chupinazo would take place at noon.

They're already broadcasting live online via the above link. But I have to wonder why CUATRO chose to use a 14:9 Screen Format ratio for their (Windows Media) player when they're only broadcasting in a 4:3 Screen Format ratio so all the people and bulls look stretched, short-and-fat. I hate it when they do that!! A pet peeve of mine.

Saludos, MadridMan

AND SO BEGINS SAN FERMIN!!!!! When the rockets shot off the Festival OFFICIALLY began at noon and the participants can then put on their red handkerchief around their necks AND THEN toast to the festival.

When the mayor (??) announced the beginning of the festival from the balcony of the city hall building, "Pamplonesas, Pamploneses, ¡Viva San Fermin! Gora San Fermín!", the crowds below went absolutely wild, EVEN I felt very emotional!!!

I'm looking forward to getting up at 7:30am every morning this week to see the 8am running. How very exciting. :jump:

Saludos, MadridMan

It's also interesting watching what kinds of advertisements they have during the festival. They've been showing lots of commercials of White Asparagus from Navarra, Navarra Tourism (of course), Pamplona Chorizo, and Wines of Navarra. How every interesting.

Saludos, MadridMan

They'll be lots of drunk guys for the running !! Australians , New Zealanders , Americans .. Young guys who just want the buzz .. And , of course , they'll be casualties ... But I live the tradition !

Wow! A good-n-fast FIRST running of the bulls this morning of San Fermin - but with a long list of injured persons, including one from California.

TVE, TVE24Horas, and CUATRO (all public/free TV channels) covered the runs but TVE/TVE24Horas had some transmission problems at the beginning of the run and were blacked out. Hope they have better luck tomorrow.

By the way, as far as I can tell, TVE24Horas has stopped broadcasting online.

Saludos, MadridMan

Chaos goes!!! http://www.20minutos.es/galeria/4926/0/0/sanfermines/2008/pamplona/

We stayed up to watch the coverage live on TVE internacional (we are in California) and were just getting into it when the screen went blank 3 or 4 minutes before the run began...you should have seen us yelling at the tv!
Thanks to MM's links in the above post, we watched and then when TVE came back on we had the computer AND the tv on!
It is so cool to be so connected to Spain all the way over here.

BTW, I trip out when I see live coverage in Europe, it's like you in Spain are in the future, because, for example, you all were already up in the morning, bright eyed and bushy-tailed, and we had not even gone to sleep for the night...
I don't know, when you think about that, it kinda trips you out.
Anyway, looks like we will be staying up late every night this week to see the live coverage!!!
Viva San Fermin!

Today's run was a little more exciting than yesterday's very clean run. Today there were at least 2 clear gorings to me and some truly acrobatic moves by some of the runners - in order to avoid getting gored. Today, one of the last bulls got left behind - which is always very dangerous - but didn't get anyone in its sights this time.

While I don't like waking up at 7:30am every morning I always enjoy watching the pre and post-run celebrations and interviews and, of course, the runs are always amazing.

It's interesting that for these few days of the festival Pamplona is on everyone's mind. But the rest of the year very few people talk about it or even visit it.

Until tomorrow! Saludos, MadridMan

I was sippin' a little java at a Starbucks before going to work 2 days ago (7/7/08) when a guy with a San Fermin t-shirt walked in and sat nearby... I could not resist asking if it was a coincidence or
purposely that he wore that t-shirt today... he smiled and told me that he and his family has gone twice and that he's got a son visiting there now!!! (I'm in San Diego, California, by the way.) Apparently they love Spain and San Fermin which is a first for me since "Toros" isn't a popular topic...

Anyway, he proceeded to tell me that it starts on 7/6 and I said that it's supposed to start on 7/7,,, embarrasing enough for me being a Spaniard althouhg I never disclosed to him being one,,, so I told him of a popular song depicting those dates(No, I didn't sing it to him) where the date was mentioned to be on the 7th of July.

It rhymes and goes like this:

Uno de Enero,
Dos de Febrero,
Tres de Marzo,,, Cuatro de Abril!!!
...
Cinco de Mayo,
Seis de Junio,
Siete de Julio,,, San Fermin!!!

So there! July 7th's San Fermin!!! Right?

...maybe that's changed too.... what's next,Los Reyes Magos!?!?!?

But have you seen all the protests . Half naked men and woman lying in the streets covered with (fake ) blood to protest the bulls being killed . Now in France they are calling for a ban on young people going to the fights .
That's been a difficult issue for me . I'm a BIG fan of the bullfights but find it strange that kids are able to watch something where a man could die and where 6 bulls will surely die .
I guess it's a tradition thing but it's surprising .
There's a lot of opposition to the bullfights amongst young Spaniards but it's so well patronised by the rich and famous ( Not least the King himself ) that they'd have a hard time stopping it .
To quote from Ernest Hemingway : "So far , about morals , I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after and judged by those moral standards , which I do not defend , the bullfight is very moral to me because I feel very fine when it is going on and have a feeling of life and death and mortality and immortality , and after it is over I feel very sad but very fine "

Nope. Haven't seen any protests yet but I guess CUATRO and TVE aren't covering that in the mornings.

By the way, 2 Californians (USA) have been gored in 2 consecutive days now. What's up with that?

(This is) what I was talking about ......


Animal rights campaigners have staged a naked protest ahead of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.

NO&DO_Yankaluz writes: Right! 7 jul is the date the Church celebrates San Fermin (1st Bishop of Pamplona?); but like many important Religious Holidays, including los Reyes Magos, Santiago and las Fallas de San Juan (Valencia) the festivities 'kick off' on la vispera del Santo. It's been that way for many years.
I believe the first Encierro is the morning of the 7th.

This morning's "run" was Fast-and-Furious and left at least one person unconscious on the bricks. Another person's back met the hairy part between the bull's eyes at full-speed. Another couple guys got totally trampled by the close-packed herd. Spectacular!

At yesterday's run, the gored Californian mentioned above, got a 15 centimeter bull-horn-hole in the gluteus maximus! YOUCH!! That one we could see clearly on the video.

So am I "sick" for enjoying watching these bull runs? Am I demented for enjoying watching with morbid curiosity the dangers for which these humans are volunteering?

Tomorrow's another day! Saludos, MadridMan

MM;

Dang, dude!!! I work with medical injuries everyday but have a weak stomach when it comes to watching IMPENDING injury,,, I can deal with the gash AFTER but don't like seeing the happening.

As for your question of being sick let's put it this way,,, as long as you don't enjoy or wish the fate of these poor bastard being taken by the bull and it's just a good healthy dose of curiosity,,, I'm alright with that,,, after all it's an spectacle of medieval roots, you don't see men taking on animals like that... just in case remind me not ti piss you off, though,,,

Late entry here:

Two Californians ate it!?!? Oh, man! First we get eaten by Great Whites on SoCal beaches (did you all hear about that a few weeks back?)

I hope that the son of that one guy I talked to the other day is OK.

Ive tried watching a coule on the net , but im offshore and the net here is so slow , i'll watch them all when I get home .
You dont need to goto pamplona to see a good encierro , they are all over spain and San sebastian de los reyes is a big one at the end of august . Just make sure you give yourself enough time on the tube to get out there . encierros

This morning's Running of the Bulls was very clean. Only two persons were hurt and not seriously, apparently by "simple trampling".

The her was running along and made it half way through when they encountered (likely) moist and slippery stone road and the last 2 or 3 bulls slipped and fell down and were left behind the main "peletón". The three then proceeded to run along pretty much together until the end.

Today there was no spectacular video of smashing hits, leaping runners, or anything else. What did catch my eye, however, was when one person ran in from the wall/barrier to simply give a smack to the passing bull. Just after doing this, one of the many "pastores" or bull-herders running behind the herd gave that guy a true hard, SMACK on the back with his long, hard cane. OUCH! That'll leave a mark. I've seen this kind of thing before, the "pastores" try to keep the her together, moving, and the runners are not supposed to touch the bulls - but many times they do or it's unavoidable.

Really, I LOVE watching these Running of the Bulls on TV every morning. Talk about a real wake-up! And not only for me! I imagine the runners themselves are WIDE-EYED and TOTALLY STIMULATED when they hear that rocket shot off and/or when they see that "load of bull" raging towards them. Forget being drunk, hung-over, or sleep-deprived. Those runners are TOTALLY awake in this moment, I'm sure.

For anyone outside of Spain thinking that the Running of the Bulls is something in which only tourists are interested, that's not true at all. Spaniards love it too! I was in the bar yesterday morning getting Porras for breakfast and saw they had the running on there too. Everyone turned away from their coffee to watch with great fascination - and lots of discussion after the bull-run finished.

Until tomorrow, MadridMan

Wow!!! Just saw the encierro in http://www.sanfermin.com/tv/
and could not stop cringing mu teeth,,, those 3 poor bulls what they had to endure although one collided into a fleshy mass of people,,, wonder how they spared after that.

Anyways, it must have been a couple of decades since I saw a televised encierro on tv (computer).

Thanx internet, I'm gonna catch up on my encierros!

thanks MadridMan for the update every day. I really love reading your thoughts about the encierro. I was able to watch the first one live on TV in NY but now i am in Argentina and although i have Spanish tv, i have not been able to watch it live...I am trying to sleep at that time.

Anyway, thanks again. And VIVA SAN FERMIN!

It's the biggest adrenaline rush ever - sure, you get a few drinks down you before, just to get you to do it, but it's the quickest way of sobering up I know of!

Another relatively "clean" running of the bulls this morning.

Seems the cobblestones were pretty damp in some places and several of the bulls slipped and fell, falling back from the "peletón". Luckily, they just got up and ran on in the correct direction without incident.

Only one goring today. One guy got hit-and-flipped by a charging bull just before entering the bull ring. They showed the video several times. In slow motion video, you see the guy turning his head back just a split second before the bull lowers his head and gores the guy in the left "gluteo" (OUCH!) with the horn and flips him up and back, causing the guy to do a NEAR-complete backflip, apparently landing on the TOP of his head or the back of his neck. OUCH! Later, we see the Red Cross carrying him off in a stretcher to the ambulance.

Another guy was miraculously "running in the horns" of the bull for a good 20 meters. I mean, the guy's rear but rubbing the fur between the bull's eyes for a good, long time. When they came to a curve the guy shifted slightly to the right and the bull lowered his head and actually nudges the guy to the right and the guy slowly slid down the back, right side of the bull, surprisingly also avoiding the pack of falling runners to the right.

There were LOTS of people running today, maybe because it's Saturday, but it's hard to believe SO many people can run and still get the bulls through. I can't imagine how many people will be running in, say, 50 years. Surely the Pamplona City Hall will have to SELL tickets or offer a lottery for only a certain number of people to run each time.

Uh-oh. Now they're inviting a group of older Americans who've been running with the bulls for nearly 40 years! Thank goodness their Spanish is surprisingly good! That's a nice change. I always feel a bit embarrassed when they interview the drunken young people in the street whom try to string together 3 or 4 Spanish-ISH words to make a make-shift sentence.

A good running of the bulls today. And I was able to wake up to see it - ON A SATURDAY MORNING!! Let's see if I have the same "fuerza" Sunday morning. Sure! Monday's the last day, afterall!

Until tomorrow, MadridMan

Didnt wake in time to see it live but saw the repeats on TVE , plus I saw a guy I know .
Didnt see the Americans getting interviewed , but the most famous and well respected foreign mozo is a guy called Joe Distler , it wouldn't surprise me it was him that was interviewed , there's plenty about him on the net

I can't believe I overslept this morning!! ARGH!!! My alarm went off and I just turned it off. Usually I have a backup alarm but had forgotten to turn it on last night. MAN! I'll have to catch the recorded run online.

Saludos, MadridMan

Slightly off topic,,, but worth a quick view.

San Fermin being celebrated in New Orleans, good ol' USA!!! HAHAHA!

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/runnin...rmin/2075121645

Note that the "bulls" will whack you with a baton,,, so you still have the element of "danger and face injury"

Today was THE LAST Running of the Bulls in Pamplona this year - and it was very "clean".

Tonight at midnight is the "Pobre de mi" ceremony in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento. The plaza will be full and singing the end of another successful running. I'm not sure if this ceremony will be televised or not. I haven't heard TVE mention it yet but maybe CUATRO will.

Today's running yielded no gorings but several were injured from being trampled or simply fell down on the hard stone streets.

The pack got strung out a little after the last 3 bulls fell over a couple of already-fallen runners but they picked themselves up and kept running - the bulls, I mean.

I have to admit that as much as I enjoy watching the RUNNING of the bulls, I almost enjoy more CUATRO's limited coverage (maybe 3 minutes) of the post-run "events" in the bull-ring. There, several young bulls with wrapped horns are released into the ring where they chase, ram, toss, and knock-down hundreds of people. Some of the tosses are spectacular! :hdspin:

Hope you all enjoyed another year full of Running-with-the-Bulls action in Pamplona. I know I did! Can't wait for next year.

Saludos, MadridMan

MM,
When I was fortunate enough to attend 24 hours of San Fermin festivities a few years back, we bought tickets inside the Plaza de Toros for the running. We heard the crowds on the street roaring! When the roars got louder we knew the bulls were getting closer to the Plaza. When the bulls were safely in their pen, I thought, "is that it? I paid money for that?"
Well, to my surprise, the young bulls entered the ring shortly thereafter and all these revelers started running around, jumping over them, taunting them. Some were quite good, and this was VERY entertaining! I was disappointed that TVE did not televise this part.
Though I only was there for one night and day, I have incredible memories of San Fermin and hope one day to return!

It was so nice waking up an hour later this morning. Whew! SO NICE!

laduque, good story about paying to sit in the bullring. I'm sure I would've felt the same way had I not known. You had to pay? Really, I thought it was open to the public. How much did you pay? Do you remember? At least then you got to see the bulls. Lots of people along the streets - including some of the runners - never get to see the bulls at all.

One of our long-lost message board members was there last weekend (I won't mention his name but he's in his mid-20s and works at one of the best known hostels in Madrid and many of our message board members know him too) but he didn't go to run - as far as I know! He just went to participate in the fun and frivolity. If we're lucky he'll see this thread and decide to share some of his experiences.

Until next year, MadridMan

To pay to get into the bullring, it was under 10 euros, not bad for a good seat and entertainment afterward...I remember being a little dissappointed at my sister in law at the time, because she had heard from locals that that was the best place to be for the encierro as if we were "lucky" enough to find a spot behind the fence along the run route, we would have only seen a flash of action. In the bullring, the most exciting part was the anticipation of of the arrival of the runners and the bulls, you could hear the roar on the streets getting louder and louder! Insane and wonderful memory!

BTW: I'm leaving on the redeye tonight for Madrid!!!!! :jump: :jump: :hdspin: See you soon!