Cientos de niños en el encierro txiki

At 7.00 p.m. in the afternoon, three large fluffy bulls from the Kukuxumusu Drawing Factory bull-ranch, once again featured in this annual running of the bulls for the kiddies. Hundreds of children took part, along with their admiring parents, in this II edition of a kiddies running of the bulls. The excited kids were delighted to imitate their seniors by aping the real version of the running of the bulls, including singing their homily to the saint, setting off a rocket to announce the start of the run and even to have some special bull-minders on hand to keep things in order as well as having a first-aid post for any post-race injuries to be treated.

After the starting rocket and the homily song to the saint had been sung, the pack of blue fluffy bulls came out of their pens and started to run. Hundreds of children of all ages were running in front of the bulls, many of the smaller members being accompanied by their parents or other family members. Of course, they tried their best to get in close in front of the horns of the big blue fluffy bulls.

The distance of the course – the 200 meters that separate the two Kukuxumusu stores in Estafeta Street – was filled with kids and the bull-minders had to work hard to ensure that the runners behaved properly and to ensure that the run was carried out as safely and normally as posible. Some of the kids showed good skill in getting close in front of the horns.

The big fluffy blue Kukuxumusu bulls tried to catch a cheeky kid or two on their fluffy horns, especially when these kids tried to pull them by their tails, but in general, the bulls were well-behaved and in the end there were no gorings suffered by the kids. However, the first-aid post had to attend and treat some of the adults and some of their kids for “attacks” of laughter and excitement during the execution of the race.

After half an hour of nervous excitement, some tight running, the odd case of pushing and shoving, some trip-ups and slip-ups, and lots of fun and laughs, this II edition of the kiddies running of the bulls was brought to a close. Immediately afterwards, many of the kids queued up have their photos taken with the three big fluffy Kukuxumusu bulls.

Photos from the 12th of July