The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona is upon us once again this year in 2009.

As many of you already know, the weeklong San Fermin festival takes place from July 7 to July 14 every year and the actual Running of the Bulls takes place at 8am local time. On July 6th you can watch, at 8am, the inauguration of the San Fermines festival on the Plaza del Ayuntamiento.

UPDATE:
One can watch "The Running of the Bulls" LIVE online at CUATRO & TVE. Actual video coverage starts at about 7:15am and lasts until about 9:00am with repetition upon repetition, slow motion, analysis, injury reports, pre-and-post-run interviews, etcetera. Also, I LOVE the commercials advertising local chorizos, wines, and other Pamplona-Navarra foods.

You can be sure that I'll be forcing myself awake early each morning to watch it live. Ugh!

Saludos, MadridMan

Just watched THE FIRST DAY of the weeklong Running of the Bulls, San Fermin Festival in Pamplona. I'm also happy to report (as I updated the info above) that one can watch LIVE COVERAGE of "The Running" online on both TVE and CUATRO, two Spanish television stations which don't normally transmit live but do for "The Running" only, from about 7:15am to 9am local time - but both websites (and others) offer recorded running's as well.

Only 3 people were hurt during today's running, nothing serious, it's said, and only took 2.5 minutes to get through. In 2005, I think, specially covered bricks were laid in the Mercaderes curve to aid traction. This is the 90º turn where historically both bulls and runners would fall, the latter oftentimes being trampled. Today, no bulls nor runners fell in the curve.

Did anyone else see The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona?

USA Today article about the first day's running HERE

Saludos, MadridMan

The second day was nearly as quick as the first day - but I wasn't able to watch much of the coverage this morning as I was busy with other things. I'd gone to the bar to pick up some breakfast porras and noticed everyone looking UP and over my shoulder. Stepping back, I noticed the coffee-drinkers were watching the preparations for the morning's Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.

Rushing back, I was able to catch the actual running but little else, a few repetitions, and a bit of the part where they let-loose a young bulls into the bull ring to run around and chase the youngsters who paid 6 years to have the "pleasure" of testing their guts with the horn-wrapped bull.

Did anyone else catch it? If so, what did you think?

Saludos, MadridMan

Wasn't up in time to watch it today , will watch it online later though .
The capea afterwards with the cows with wrapped horns is still dangerous , and american was left paraplegic a few years ago after getting tossed during the capea .

I haven´t seen it yet ... A bit too early for my schedule . Eskimo Joe thanks for the link you sent me ( An Article from the UK "Times" newspaper ), regarding bullfighting ! For other boardmembers , the link is :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/giles_coren/article6632871.ece

A guy was killed on this mornings run http://www.burladero.com

A sad day for Pamplona, but it is the risk of running the bulls, especially Jandilla's

Whoa! I missed the running live but woke up this morning to hear the news and then went to CUATRO.com to see the videos. 27-year old Alcala de Henares (Madrid) man was killed by the last, straggling bull from today's Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.

He was sitting on the ground next to the barricade, turned his head towards the bull, and at that exact moment the bull turned towards him and its horns sliced his from up to down across the neck's Jugular vein. Yikes. That's just awful.

But what jazz says is true. This highlights the potential dangers accompanied with the Running of the Bulls. One death is too many. But if one does the math, one death among the 10,000 running - and the first death in two years of the running - are very low odds of dying. Your chances are MUCH higher, of course, of suffering a non-lethal goring, however.

Very sad day in Pamplona, indeed.

Saludos, MadridMan

And tomorrow on Saturday bulls of Dolores Aguirre, very dangerous also in pamplona, on Saturday and many people running. Good luck !!

Dramatist the today encierro in pamplona

My goodness. How horrific. One poor guy was brutalized by one of the straggling bulls, really tore him to pieces (nearly literally!). The video shows flesh hanging from his bare thighs, had a bloody back and blood-stained T-shirt chest. This all happened right at the entry to the Plaza de Toros. I can't yet find out who he was or where he was from. He may have been the 31-year old Madrid man who had 2 gorings in the thigh.

UPDATE: two of the seriously injured men today were from Madrid, 32 & 36 years old.

See THIS Madridiario.es article.

Sad , for sure .... but they know the risks .

Wow, jazz. Those are some incredible photos in the link you posted - and some are really scary/nasty. The worst is the goring of the one runner by the bull's horn which clearly enters his HEAD from just under his jaw. Yikes.

I just saw the last two days of The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona; from this morning and yesterday. Seemed like a very clean run UNTIl the bulls were entering the bullring, some tripped and became piles of bulls & humans.

Saludos, MadridMan

This is the bullfights. !!Not to the bullfights!!

And so that is that. The end of San Fermines in Pamplona. I woke up this morning expecting another video but realized, then, that the festival was finished until next year.

I was happy to see the first couple of days live and all the corresponding commentary before, during, and all those wonderful camera angles afterwards. It's great (and somewhat surprising) that they can jam 1.5 hours of live daily media around 2.5 minutes of bull-runnings.

Did anyone else what the videos - or watch live - from abroad or from the USA?

Saludos, MadridMan

I only watched the highlights from the singing in the town square . The speech from El Alcalde ( She was very passionate ) .
Steve

I managed to catch a few of them live from the uk on TV . The Muiras were really scary , but they are evil animals thats why the figuras stay away from them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCvy6q_sx8Q

And...... in August the corda of Paterna,!!!Without commentaries!!!

And the human castles in cataluña. Vilafranca's Castellers. It(he) is curious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IZ7CaGNI6w

jazz, the above two video links (Valencia and Vilafranca) are really cool and interesting! But what do they have to do with Pamplona's Running of the Bulls?

Saludos, MadridMan

My neurons don't work with the heat.!Sorry!