We will be in madrid sept.8th-12th and were wanting info on watching the bullfights. We had heard something about them being suspended because of the disease problems with beef in europe? Any info like where to go how to buy tickets ,how much and so on would be helpfull.They are on Sundays correct?

D&B,

The bullfights are on sundays, at least in Las Ventas, the biggest and more reputated in Madrid.

I include this link for you to read if you know Spanish:

Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas

I think they have never been suspended because of the disease, it was only forbidden to sell the bodies of the bulls for food proposes. Even that could be off by now.

You can easily arrive by metro or bus. There is a map in the web I posted above. It is in the eastern part of Madrid's downtown area.

You can buy them at the Plaza de Toros os some authorized agencies (I don't know any), these can charge you up to a 20% extra.

Of couse, you should buy in advance or very early or you will have to buy them to ilegal resellers around the Plaza, usually 2 to 4 times its usual price.

Prices:

Prices in pesetas

The closer to the ring, the more expensive. Also, if you are in a shadow area (much less hot), it is more expensive. 'Sol' means 'sun', 's y s' means 'sun and shadow' (depending of the hour), 'somb' is short for 'sombra' - 'shadow'.

Hope this helps

Due to the mad cow disease, they are not allowed to sell the bull's meat. Entrepeneurs said it was too expensive for them to get rid of that meat and they asked the government to pay for the disposing of it or, otherwise, they would go on a strike. At the begining, the government said they were not going to pay anything, but surprisingly, in just one day they changed their mind and agreed to pay for it and also to subsidize bullfightings to make them profitable while the disease is still on. Therefore, there is no strike on the bullfighting sector in Spain.

Bullfightings are usually on Sundays but sometimes there are special ones on other days. At Madridman's link section you'll find the sites of two tickets agencies selling tickets in advance (20% commission).

We spent half of July in Spain and made certain that part of our stay covered a Sunday in Madrid at 7PM. That's the time of the bullfights at Las Ventas (Madrid's bullring) & it's not to be missed. No need to purchase advance tickets unless a particularly famous matador is there. We arrived at 6:30PM and had plenty of time to buys 4 tickets (half in the sun, half in the shade, about midway up). Las Ventas is so easy to get to by train; it's about six or seven short stops from the center of Madrid and the subway maps are simple to decipher. The subway stop brings you right to Las Ventas (which is, incidentally, the name of the subway stop. Incredible highlight of our trip...Enjoy.