It has been quite a long time since any ears were awarded on the seventh of July and now, in one fell swoop, three ears are generously awarded, thanks to the skills of bullfighter López Simón. With the third Jandilla fighting bull he began to show his mettle and he was awarded one ear for his work, although many of the watching crowd called for a second ear.
With the sixth, from Vegahermosa, things were clearer from the start. This fighting bull let the toreador do his work and the bullfighter showed what he was capable of doing on a good day. The animal and the man made a perfect match – bullfighter Simón and a bull named “Garfunkel “ both came together to achieve some sweet music for the ear – that is to say, loud applause from the public and the opening of the main gate for the toreador to be carried out shoulder high.
Maite H. Mateo
López Simón took over the role of the better-known Padilla in Pamplona, while this much-loved bullfighter seemed to be in some other city and in some other bullring. All he got was a cold silence and a warning from the president. Meanwhile, the third toreador, Pepe Moral, also came and went in silence with both of his bulls, after also getting a warning on a day best forgotten for him. Maite H. Mateo
The infirmary within the bullring did not need to open yesterday and the public sweltered under a hot sun as their enthusiasm for the bullfights melted in the heat. The recently-elected Mayor of Pamplona received a shrill jeering whistling from part of the public as he took his place in the stand.
López Simón, descalzo, a por la puerta grande. Maite H. Mateo
The procession of the saint took place without any incidents of note and the newly-elected mayor, Joseba Asiron, was cheered and applauded along the route.
The procession in honor of St. Fermín was refreshingly uneventful. For the first time in over a decade, there were no jeering, nor insults, nor pushing and shoving as the city hall councillors made their way up Curia Street on their way to the cathedral. The procession was a happy one for the recently-elected mayor Joseba Asiron (EH BIldu) who was applauded and acclaimed by the public and he, smiling and cheerful, wave an exuberant greeting and indeed even stopped to embrace some of the watching crowd.
The contentious point of many of the previous processions in these past years in Curia Street today passed without incident. In spite of the large crowd gathered to watch the procession, the retinue of personalities paraded in a normal fashion amid the applause of the public, with some voices chanting a goodbye to the previous political party in power up to this year “Agur UPN agur, agur” while some other people acclaimed the new mayor by chanting his name “Asirón, Asirón”.
The Running of the Bulls creates many dramatic images, awesome scares that make you expect the worst – that the runner will have suffered a serious mishap or injury or a brutal goring to the leg or thorax that will keep him in hospital for a week or two or an even longer stay. But sometimes those fearful images can end with the sight of the runner back on his feet, with a stunned look on his face, looking dazedly to his left and to his right, without fulling comprehending what has just happened, slowly coming to realize that he has had a lucky escape even as he is being attended by the Red Cross, but with his life out of danger.
At today’s Running of the Bulls, a young runner received a spectacular tossing in Mercaderes street, just outside the door of the Kukuxumusu store, captured on film by our photographer, Ignacio Rubio. The sequence made us fear the worst, pero in a subsequent photo taken by Maite H. Mateo, another photographer from Sanfermin.com, we saw how the runner got back on his feet and continued to run ahead.
Only when the Running of the Bulls had ended, was he treated by the Red Cross and it was discovered that indeed, he had suffered a superficial jab from the horns of the bull and he was taken off to hospital, although his wound has been classified as only slight.
The first Running of the Bulls of 2015 with the Jandilla bull-breed was both thrilling and dangerous, with lots of falls, while some of the bulls were charging at the runners. First reports indicate seven serious injuries – one of these caused by a goring to the thorax of a runner at the Santo Domingo stretch.
All the way up the slope at Santo Domingo the bulls were running at a tremendous pace. One black bull raced ahead of the others and made several dangerous charges at the runners and it was here that the only goring took place. As the bulls raced across the City Hall square and Mercaderes the pack began to loosen and separate, creating two small groups. This allowed the runners to get in close in front of the horns and some fine running was seen, while there was also a sense of perpetual danger as the bulls charged along at a very fast pace.
On the final stretch of the course the bulls slowed down a bit and there was a relative calmness although at theTelefónica stretch there were some runners who experienced moments of high tension and risk. Once in the arena, the bulls headed quickly towards the safety of the pens and the whole run finished in a time of 2 min. 23 sec.
Fastest Running of the Bulls: 2´19″ 7/7/1998 22,66 km per hour Slowest Running of the Bulls: 5´33″ 11/7/2005 9,45 km per hour Average length of time: 3´19″ 15,14 km per hour Average number of gorings: 1,8 (27/15) Average number of runnings with gorings: 3,3 (27/8)
The Jandilla bulls have covered the length of the stretch of the Running of the Bulls a total of 21 minutes and 7 seconds. Up to now, the Jandilla bull-breed have caused a total of 27 gorings, almost two per running, (1,8) although, in 2014 there were no gorings caused, which broke with the statistical average up to then. Indeed, it is important to note a crucial fact. From a total of fifteen Running of the bulls, seven of these did not suffer any gorings and in the remaining eight runs all of the 27 gorings took place. The general average statistics hide the fact that with the Jandilla it is a case of all or nothing, either they cause an above-average number of gorings or none at all.
Their typical behavior in the Running of the Bulls:
In their fastest days they tend to stay together in a close pack until at least half-way-up Estafeta Street where they begin to lengthen out from one another. If any of the bulls get loose from the others, this tends to cause a long running and makes this especially dangerous for the runners.
AWARDS: Trofeo Feria del Toro: 2003 and 2004.Carriquiri: 2004, 2005 and 2009
Sanfermin 2015 opens with the Txupinazo, the traditional event which each year opens the best-known and most universal fiestas in the whole world. We provide live reports of the event. MORE PHOTOS
Pamplona is all ready for the opening of fiestas. All over the weekend, the steady influx of tourists has increased in momentum, while the locals are busy checking details as the final countdown moves inexorably forward and the people bring out their traditional white fiesta gear and red neckties from the bottom of the cupboards in readiness for the opening rocket at midday on the 6th of July.
The Pamplona Peña Clubs have organized different events that coincide with their Peña Day – Saturday, 4th of July – which have livened up the old quarter of the city with a lot of brass bands playing around the streets and with the Giants and their entourage lending their support. In addition, the pro-animal organization, Anima Naturalis, has once again this year gathered to make their annual protest against the deemed as cruel treatment suffered by the bulls both in morning Running of the Bulls and in the afternoon bullfights in the Pamplona Bullring.
And as the city makes itself ready for fiestas so too do the people chosen this year to set off the opening Txupinazo rocket. Very shortly, Javier Aranegui, from the Orfeón Pamplonés Brass Band and Chantal Estrade, grand-daughter of one of the founder-members of the Peña La Veleta, will both open the party scenario to nine days of fiesta, runnings of the bulls and the general festive scene. Both of them were selected by the new city hall mayor, Joseba Asirón, who wishes to give recognition to the importance of this Orfeón brass band to the city over the past 150 years as the band celebrate their centenary this year. Equally, he wishes to acknowledge the influence of the Veleta Peña club which, in the early 1930’s, first stimulated the idea of wearing white and red clothing during fiestas and which has now become such a norm for thousands and thousands of local people.
The main concern for the Txupinazo opening event would seem to lie in the weather forecast which, according to the Spanish weather agency, will probably see temperatures of 35º C on Monday’s opening day. It will be important to hydrate oneself to avoid problems.
For those who prefer to watch the Txupinazo opening event in a more relaxed manner, several huge screens have been erected at various points around the downtown area which will broadcast the event through the signal offered by RTVE national TV. These are to be found at the Plaza del Castillo, Paseo Sarasate, Plaza de los Fueros, Parque Antoniutti and Carlos III.
Televisión Española (Spanish State Television) returns to Sanfermin fiestas yet again this year, thanks to the large audience response achieved down the years and to the quality of the spectacle as well as the international response in the transmission of the Running of the Bulls. From the h 6th to the 14th of July there will be special daily programs broadcast. The 2014 Running of the Bulls saw the second highest audience share in the history of the broadcasts (the highest ever figures were achieved in 2010). According to a statement issued by RTVE they had an average of “1.741.000 viewers and a 73. 6% share between the first channel and their 24 Hour news channel. More than 4,6 million viewers watched at least some part of the running of the bulls broadcasts on TVE.”
Furthermore, Kukuxumusu will once again be responsible for the cartoon figures used to market the Sanfermin programming on TVE and will design the graphic elements to be used in the RTVE special broadcast programs for Sanfermin both for the Chupinazo opening event and for the daily bullrunnings.
Besides, the quality response shown by RTVE is endorsed by their use of a High Quality Transmission, with 25 different cameras being used for the daily broadcasting of the Running of the Bulls. One of the cameras will have a zip-line prop to provide a bird’s eye view of the bullrunning. There will be a total professional staff of more than eighty people employed to broadcast the Pamplona Running of the Bulls.
The signal which will be used by the TVE 1, the 24 hours Channel, The Internacional Channel and the web page rtve.es has been taken up by Esquire Network as the source for its retransmissions for The United States and for all the channels that will use this supplier. The famous Men in Blazers will be the anchormen that present the Running of the Bulls live.
In the press launch this morning both Elena Sánchez and Javier Solano spoke about the work they hope to achieve during Sanfermin. Elena Sánchez wished to emphasize the capacity of the RTVE national channel for its ability to broadcast live events and underlined the fact that there will be five live points that will be active throughout the broadcasting of the Running of the Bulls for RTVE. He went on to say that the Running of the Bulls event is now “more crowded, more difficult to run well, but not necessarily more dangerous”. Here he is:
After performing 37 years, the jota Singer, Alfonso Royo, will pass the torch to Iñaki Reta to become the masculine voice for the jota song “Ofrenda a San Fermín,” composed by Joaquín Madurga. Ana Patús will continue to provide the female voice, but it will be strange for her, as she will longer be accompanied in the duo by Alfonso Royo, who formed part of this musical duo ever since the inception of this annual procession song in praise of San Fermin on the 7th of the 7th of 1977- when he first sang the lyrics of Madurga. You can hear him singing here.
The next San Fermin procession this coming 7th of July, will see the 38th consecutive performance of the song as we have heard it year after year. The origin of this annual event and which is now such an emotional part of the procession for the public, goes back to the year 1975. That year, Joaquín Madurga and the Santiago de la Txantrea choir were invited to perform at the children’s traditional offering to San Fermín. Madurga composed this original piece which we now know as “Ofrenda a San Fermín” and he used a duo of jota singers to perform the piece. On that first occasion, Madurga had the backing of the Santiago choir and the duo who sang was made up of his sister Nieves Madurga and Migueltxo Ganuza.
That first performance went down very well with the general public and Madurga and his people began to consider the possibility of singing to the saint every year at the same point along the route of the procession at the Plaza del Consejo. This was an open-air space and a point where there were not too many people gathered. On the 7th of July, 1977 the first performance took place here in what is now a traditional “spontaneous” performance of the “Ofrenda a San Fermín” piece which Joaquín Madurga had first written two years earlier for the children’s offering to the saint. The two performers chosen were Nieves Madurga and Alfonso Royo under the direction of Madurga himself. Later on, the conductor of the choir was assumed by Migueltxo Ganuza and the female voice was taken on by Ana Patús.
«Ofrenda a San Fermín» (Joaquín Madurga)
Glorioso San Fermín, venimos a cantarte
mayores y chavales con un igual sentir. (bis)
Unimos nuestras voces en un común cantar,
que sea el homenaje de nuestro amor filial.
Alegres cantad al santo sin par, con notas de alegría.
¡Excelso patrón, escucha esta voz y danos tu bendición!
Al glorioso San Fermín cantamos así:
Es la jota de tu Navarra la que hoy te reza,
la que hoy te canta.
Es la jota de tu Navarra Fermín bendito,
la que hoy te ensalza.
Es la jota de tu Navarra la que hoy te reza,
la que hoy te canta.
Con la jota de tu Navarra, va la oración del
pueblo que te ama.
Es la jota de tu Navarra la que hoy te reza,
la que hoy te canta.
Con aires de jota por san Fermín,
con tragos de bota por San Fermín.
Con gaitas, con txistus y tamboril,
el pueblo celebra su san Fermín.
Con aires de jota por san Fermín,
con gaitas, con txistus y tamboril,
El pueblo en alegre cantar,
al santo paisano quiere celebrar.
La la la…
Al glorioso San Fermín, cantamos así:
Pamplona, Navarra, la tierra te canta.
San Fermín en tu pañuelo se anuda gente del mundo entero.
Pamplona, Navarra, la tierra te canta.
Son tus fiestas arco iris, con los colores del universo.
Pamplona, Navarra, la tierra te canta.
La ganadería de Jandilla ha sido galardonada como “mejor encierro de Sanfermin 2014” por la calidad de la carrera de estos bureles el 11 de julio en Sanfermin 2014. Según el veredicto del jurado del Nuevo Casino para el premio “Alpargata de honor”, la ganadería Jandilla completó la mejor de las carreras de Sanfermin 2014. El encierro duró 2´53″ y no registró heridos por asta. Jandilla tiene una media de 5,8 heridos por traumatismo en cada encierro pero en esta última terminó con 7. Puedes consultar los detalles de este encierro y sus imágenes en Sanfermin.com.
El galardón se entregará en el Salón del Nuevo Casino en Sanfermin 2015 antes de la tertulia taurina.
El Nuevo Casino es un lugar tradicional que recomendamos para desayunar tras el encierro. Es un lugar céntrico, en plena plaza del castillo, donde Sanfermin.com te permite reservar para desayunar con los tuyos en un ambiente único. Reserva desayuno en el Nuevo Casin
Maite H. Mateo
