Bull Running in Spain

The Pamplona Encierro: Three Minutes, 875 Metres, and 16 Deaths Since 1910

The encierro – the running of the bulls – takes place each morning from July 7 to July 14 during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona. Six fighting bulls and six steers run 875 metres from the corral at Santo Domingo through the old city streets to the Plaza de Toros bullring. The run starts at 8am and is over in approximately three minutes. The same bulls that run in the morning are fought and killed in the corrida that evening. That context is not separable from the event.

At least 16 people have been gored to death in the encierro since 1910. Hundreds are injured annually, ranging from minor falls to serious gorings. The bulls weigh around 600 kilograms and reach speeds exceeding 50km/h on flat ground. The route has two consistently dangerous sections: the tight left turn at the town hall, where the street narrows and runners get pinned against the wall if they misjudge the corner, and the compressed entrance to the bullring where the crowd funnels.

Participating

The run is free to join. You must be over 18. Drunk runners are ejected from the course before the 8am start, which is both sensible policy and a serious enforcement operation given the state of Pamplona at 7:30am on any July morning. Register at the Calle de la Estafeta or Santo Domingo entry points by 7:30. The official advice is to run in front of a bull for a short distance then step aside. Whether that advice has ever been acted on as described under actual running conditions is a matter some veterans dispute.

The safest spectator position is one of the wooden-fenced window barriers on Calle Estafeta. These sell for EUR 10 to 20 per person in advance, managed by the Pamplona town council. Rooftop and balcony positions along the route are controlled by building owners and cost EUR 80 to 200 or more for the week.

San Fermin Beyond the Encierro

The festival runs from July 6 (the chupinazo rocket from the town hall at noon, the opening ceremony that begins the week) through July 14. It is not a brief daily event; it is a continuous week of concerts, fireworks, processions, and street life in white clothing and red neckerchiefs. Plaza del Castillo is the social centre throughout, with outdoor bars serving kalimotxo (red wine and cola) from morning.

The food in Pamplona is Basque and it is genuinely excellent. Bar Gaucho on Calle Espoz y Mina does pintxos for EUR 2 to 3 each from 1pm. The queue outside tells you what you need to know.

Accommodation

Book 6 to 12 months in advance for any accommodation during festival week. Prices multiply by five to ten times their normal rate. Most rooms are gone by January. Camping de Ezcaba, 7 kilometres north of the city, is the overflow option. Sleeping in the parks is technically illegal and widely tolerated; the city has managed this arrangement for long enough that it functions as unofficial infrastructure.

Pamplona Outside July

The medieval core of the city is accessible and quieter outside festival week. The Citadel (16th-century defensive fortification, now a public park), the Cathedral of Santa Maria la Real (14th-century Gothic cloister, EUR 5 entry), and the old city walls are all good on an ordinary afternoon. The Bardenas Reales badlands, 90 kilometres south, make a compelling day trip: an eroded desert landscape of clay mesas and rock formations in the Pyrenean foothills that has nothing to do with bulls or festivals and is rarely as crowded as it should be.