Running of the Bulls Festival begins, but not everybody’s cheering

Woah, there: The 2013 Running of the Bulls Festival in Pamplona has begun

San Fermin 2013: The Bull-Running Festival of Pamplona is up and running for another year of mayhem. As thrill-seeking tourists from around the world descend on this ancient town to test their mettle against 200kg of muscle, mirth-seeking tourists flock there too, to watch from the safety of balconies that first group slip, skip and slide their way through the streets…

It’s an annual ritual that is now as famous for its controversy as it is for its tradition. Classed as cruel, antiquated and just downright dangerous for all concerned, Pamplona’s name is now inextricably synonymous with the bull run… and you get the impression that the local authorities wouldn’t want it any other way.

Because as eyes turn annually to Wimbledon for the tennis and France for the Tour de France, Pamplona is increasingly becoming the destination-of-choice for holidaymakers looking for summer kicks of a distinctly different flavour. The festival has been given more press in the UK than normal as well, which means we’re surely only a few days now from some handwringing opinion piece by an ill-informed reporter about the barbarity of it all; most likely a reporter whose only experience of Spain has been a week spent lying on a Balearic beach.

But some factions have more real grievances. The start of this year’s festival, for example, was delayed as masked protestors unfurled a large Basque flag to block the view of the balcony from where the rocket that launches the party is fired.

The flag, which is called the Ikurrina, was unfurled just a few minutes before the beginning of the official celebrations, which caused the thronging square of onlookers to chant “Viva San Fermin” in protest until the flag was removed.

Finally, after a wait of 19 minutes and some minor scuffles in the square between local youths and Basque sympathisers, the rocket was shot upwards to an encore of exultant cheers. And so began a fiesta that will last for nine days of daily bull runs, nightly parties and non-stop consumption of sangría and beer.

The first bull run began on Sunday, where six bulls were unleashed at the beginning of the 800-metre course, which snakes its narrow way through the town’s cobblestone streets. Later that day, the bulls then face off against the matadors in the bullring, where they are ceremoniously killed and their meat served in Pamplona’s finest restaurants.

The history of the bull run is a little murky. Bulls have been corralled through Spanish towns and cities for centuries as it was the only way to get them to the bullring. After a while, some people began running alongside the bulls, despite the practice being illegal. And soon enough, the transportation of the bulls became as much part of the festival as the bullfights themselves.

Records for the Pamplona festival began in 1924. Since that date, 15 people have been killed during the running of the bulls, the most recent in 2009. Scores of people are injured every year, although most succumb to slips and falls rather than actual bull encounters.

The rules are simple: you must be over 18, sober, run in the same direction as the bull and not towards it, and not to incite the bull. Wooden barricades are set up along the route that allow humans to slip inside the gap if a bull fixes its gaze and charge on them. The bull cannot fit through the gap, so it’s ostensibly a safety measure of sorts.

Have a watch at this year’s festival, though, and you’ll quickly see that there is very little about the event that could be described as “safe’. Which makes it even more thrillingly, tellingly Spanish…