Origins and Civic Calendar of San Fermín
Pamplona is the regional capital of Navarre. The famous festival begins at noon on July 6 and ends at midnight on July 14. Long ago, three different traditions created this festival. People joined religious events, cattle trade fairs, and summer bull exhibitions together into one big celebration.
In 1591, city leaders moved the festival from wet autumn weather in October to sunny July 7 to enjoy warm summer weather. The festival opens when a loud Chupinazo pyrotechnic rocket flies from the town hall balcony. People wear white clothing and red neckerchiefs in the plaza. In 1980, the tourism secretariat named the celebration an official Fiesta of International Tourist Interest. At midnight on July 14, people sing the mournful anthem Pobre de Mí and untie their red neckerchiefs to end the festival.
The Encierro Course and Double Wooden Barriers
The encierro bull run happens daily from July 7 to July 14 at 08:00. Two warning pyrotechnic rocket discharges tell runners the bulls are running. The race route measures 875 meters through old streets. Bulls run from Corrales de Santo Domingo through Calle Mercaderes and Calle Estafeta to the arena.
Town carpenters build a strong double barrier along the course. They assemble 900 vertical timber posts and 2,700 horizontal pine planks. The gap between the barriers is a quiet evacuation corridor. Only doctors, nurses, police officers, and accredited media photographers may stand in this space. Crews spray an anti-slip resin solution on the sharp ninety-degree right turn into Calle Estafeta to stop running bulls from sliding on stones. Carpenters lock each timber fence with wooden wedge keys. Workers take down small gate sections each morning so delivery vehicle transit can pass.
Pastoral Handling and Six Fighting Bulls
Six mature fighting bulls from an accredited livestock estate run each morning. Six trained guide steers called cabestros run with them to maintain herd cohesion. Two minutes later, workers release a sweeping sweep team of three additional bullocks to collect any separated or disoriented animals along the route.
Trained pastores herders run beside the pack holding long hazel wood rods. They stop runners from touching, inciting, or turning the bulls around. Before the morning run, runners stand before a wall shrine niche on Cuesta de Santo Domingo. They sing a traditional chant three times asking for divine protection. When no bulls fall, the herd traverses the 875-meter course in about two minutes and thirty seconds. City rules state that runners cannot be intoxicated or carry filming equipment or backpacks. Nobody may touch the animals or follow them into the arena tunnel.
Municipal Healthcare and Crowd Safety Logistics
More than three hundred healthcare personnel work along the race course. Trauma physicians, hospital nurses, and Red Cross volunteers stand ready to help injured runners. Teams operate sixteen medical intervention posts along the course. These emergency stations sit roughly fifty meters apart to provide quick roadside stabilization.
More than twenty emergency ambulances wait on side streets. Mobile intensive care ambulances have clear routes to the Hospital Universitario de Navarra. Small contusions and skin scrapes make up 85 percent of all treated injuries. Surgeons also treat deep horn puncture wounds known as cornadas. City police work with the Policía Foral and the Guardia Civil. Officers set up sobriety checkpoints to keep dangerous or unauthorized people out of the course precinct. Since records began in 1910, officials have recorded sixteen participant fatalities, spurring strict modern safety rules and careful medical drills.
