Edad de San Fermín 36 años. How Old MicrosoftEdad de San Fermín 36 años. How Old Microsoft

Caravinagre is 66 years old, San Fermín is 36 and the Giants and their retinue have an average age of 35, according to the ‘Howoldrobot’ from Microsoft

At some time a lot of you have probably thought about putting Caravinagre and San Fermín through the Microsoft application that attempts to forecast the age from the image… well, we have done so and the #howoldrobot tells us that Caravinagre is 66 years old, San Fermín is 36 and the ‘Europe’ Giant is 33. The average age of the Giants and their retinue is 35, with widely different predictions being made.

Caravinagre 66 años How Old Microsoft

In the case of Caravinagre, the prediction made by the appliance is a bit scary because it is quite close to the truth. This particular “kiliki” is in fact 74 years old. Caravinagre was made in the Porta-Coeli workshops in Valencia in 1941. However, in the case of San Fermín and some of the giants, the forecasts are not so realistic; indeed, the gentle features of the saint and some of the giants made by Tadeo Amorena are a long way older than the thirties. Perhaps the appliance fails here because of the smooth features of these sculptures…

How-old.net has become very popular and well-known in spite of the fact that everything began just as a stratagem in order to carry out a demonstration by two Microsoft engineers at a Congress. This appliance, now so popular, came into being as a result of a stratagem used to demonstrate the capacity of the Azure system from Microsoft that allows APIS to be developed to show machines how to do different tasks (‘machine learning’). These FACE APIs from Microsoft, which integrates this system, can gather identities, age, sex, etc…  and after trying out this stratagem we have to admit that there is no doubt about its potential for the future.

San Fermín’s age is 36. How Old robot from Microsoft gives San Fermín as 36 years old.
San Fermín’s age is 36. How Old robot from Microsoft gives San Fermín as 36 years old.
Javier Erice a la derecha y el cartel de kilikón a la izquierda. Javier le saca la burla con la mano abierta coloca en la nariz al cartel, donde un niño realiza la misma postura a Caravinagre

Kilikón, from Javier Erice, is the winning poster to announce the 2015 Sanfermin Fiestas

Javier Erice Larumbe and his poster creation, entitled Kilikón, will announce the 2015 Sanfermin fiestas. His creation received 1, 511 votes from a total of 5, 124 votes cast by the citizens of Pamplona which gave him a percentage of 29, 4% of the total votes. From the votes cast on Internet by voters from the municipal census list, Kilikón was the first option with 1, 098 votes with a margin of 362 votes over “Mogollón”, poster number 7, which was created by Carlos García López from Barcelona. The winning poster from Erice was also the first option, although with a tighter margin, from among those who cast their vote in person at the Civivox municipal premises, belonging to Pamplona City Hall, with 398 votes as compared with the 354 votes received by the poster “Mogollón”.

In the open survey carried out online by Sanfermin.com, in which it was not necessary to be on Pamplona city census list, Kilikón achieved an even higher margin over the rest of the entrants where the winning poster was given 44% of the total number of votes cast. However, outside Pamplona, the Mogollón” poster proved to be less popular and the two best runner-up posters were those of “La despedia de los Gigantes” and “8 días de blanco y rojo”.

At the press conference today, the Mayor of Pamplona, Enrique Maya, wished to underline the fact that for him personally, it was a thrill to know that the winning poster, with its image of Caravinagre, will feature as the official poster to announce the fiestas of  Sanfermin this coming July. It was equally satisfying to find that the author was a local man from Pamplona. It was also satisfying to see that the participation in the voting this year had improved on that of last year with a total of 5,124 votes cast – 47.4% more than in 2014. However, the total does not reach the 6.422 votes cast in 2012 or the 9, 782 votes cast in 2009.

Author Javier Erice, was trained in the School of Arts and Crafts. Although he has never dedicated himself full-time to working as an artist he has always kept in close contact with the world of painting and photography. Erice stressed that he chose the “paper-Mache Big-Head” figure of Caravinagre “because he felt like doing it” and that he did not take into account any fashionable trends in painting but rather worked wholly from his own criteria. He underlined the fact that by choosing Caravinagre he wished to reflect his own childhood fears and, on the other hand, with the nose-thumbing gesture of the small child, he wished to create a simple manner of dealing with those situations that can terrify us.

Se puede puede ver a Javier Erice con el cartel en la mano y su reflejo en el espejo de la sala de prensa del ayuntamiento de Pamplona
Javier Erice con su obre en la rueda de prensa de presentación del cartel ganador
Resultados de la encuesta web donde el cartel Kilikon gana con el 44% de los votos. Más de 1300.

Kilikon será el cartel de Sanfermin 2015

Según los lectores y seguidores de Sanfermin.com, “Kilikón” será el cartel de Sanfermin 2015. Tras una semana de encuestas a través de Sanfermin.com y las redes sociales de Sanfermin, “Kilikón” será el cartel ganador porque obtuvo 1.390 elecciones, el 44,1% de todas las votaciones. Le sigue con un 31% de las elecciones “La despedida de los gigantes” que ha registrado 983 votos.

Con estos datos principales podemos concluir que entre estos dos carteles está el gusto mayoritario de nuestros seguidores. El resto, como se puede ver en la tabla, le sigue a distancia aunque el orden es “8 días de rojo y blanco”, “San Fermín Pamplona Lovers”, “Mogollón”, “Estallido & recompensa” , “Urdin gorri” y “Ciudad Abierta / Hiria zabalik”.

Kilikon 1390 44.1%
La despedida de los gigantes 983 31.2%
8 días de rojo y blanco 324 10.3%
San Fermín Pamplona Lovers 230 7.3%
Mogollón 122 3.9%
Estallido & recompensa 50 1.6%
Urdin gorri 33 1%
Ciudad abierta / Hiria zabalik 22 0.7%

El sistema utilizado permite votar varias veces y, si bien los votos totales pueden estar inflados porque hay quienes han votado muchas veces por diferentes carteles, los porcentajes se han mantenido desde el inicio de la encuesta. Veremos el martes que viene si hemos acertado. Muchas gracias a quienes han participado.

Ilustración con un perfil de Caravinagre gigante que ocupa la parte izquierda y central del cartel.  Ala derecha y abajo se amanece el perfil en sombre de un niño que se burla del kiliki.
Cartel Kilikon finalista concurso de carteles de San fermin 2015
Comparsa de Gigantes y Cabezudos de Sanfermin Calendario 2015

Calendar of the Giants and all their entourage for 2015 with pupils from the Colegio Muñoz Garde School

This Saturday the 2015 Calendar goes on sale for five euros which has been produced by the Public College Andrés Muñoz Garde school in Pamplona. The calendar features as protagonists both the pupils and the different paper-maché characters from the Sanfermin Giants and Bigheads Entourage.

Sales of the calendar will be made along the route taken by the entourage on the feast day of San Saturnino, patron saint of Pamplona. This parade will start at 9.15 a.m. from the Coach Station in Pamplona. After the parade the calendar can also be bought at the school located at nº 27 Pedro I Street.

The photo session took place at the beginning of last November and it was a great fiesta occasion for the pupils in the school. The photography work remains concealed in among so much lying, so much kissing and hugging and the result is highly acclaimed as can be checked out from the images found on the school blog page.

Fear around the streets

Picture taken by Javier Martinez de La Puente

The terror of all the kids in Pamplona, and indeed, the rest of us as well; Caravinagre. There are various big-heads among the entourage of The Giants but the worst one is, without any doubt, this one. In this photo, we can see how he is already lurking in wait for the camera, which, after taking his photo, will then get what it deserves for daring to photo his fearful face.

Chester Giant

Giants

The picture is familiar in many ways, but the setting is not.
Beyond the Walls – Echoes in a different country, by Mat Dowsett
Spanish Language version (here)

Pamplona. Home of the running of the bulls and the fiesta to end all fiestas. San Fermín draws a varied and international following, but very few foreign visitors are aware that Pamplona is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fiestas and bulls. Across Spain and beyond there are many hundreds of fiestas and thousands of encierros every year. Within the old walls of Pamplona a local drama is played out on an international stage, but beyond the walls are the unseen and untold tales of the people, the bulls and the streets of these other fiestas.

I have a wonderful book that describes all of the giants of Navarra with histories and pictures. The “gigantes” have become one of the features of Navarran fiestas that we love the most and that we look forward to seeing the most. Now that we have a young daughter we are looking forward to taking her to see these incredible creations in towns up and down the ancient kingdom.

But look closely at the picture and you will see that the background is a little less familiar. In fact this is not Navarra, not even Spain. This is England. In Chester, an ancient Roman city in the North West of England, close to Liverpool, at Midsummer every year they have a parade of many different kinds of animals, figures and mythical creatures. Included in this parade is a family of Tudor giants – a father, mother and two daughters. They proudly take their place and parade through the streets with the rest of the characters and it is a scene that reminds me distinctly of Navarra.

You might think that Chester has taken inspiration from Northern Spain but incredibly the history of this period is no less than 500 years old. The Midsummer parade was very popular in Tudor England and was first recorded in 1498 when Chester was unique in England for having an entire family of giants. Sadly the parade was abandoned in the 1670s but was revived 25 years ago in 1989 and has found a place in the hearts of the people of Chester once again being a colourful parade accompanied by music, drums, dancers and led by dignitaries of the city.

It is also interesting to note that there is also a parade of giants in Chester on a number of occasions through the year with many other giants (many much more modern in conception) joining the more traditional. So that it can truly be said that Chester in Cheshire is the spiritual home of English giants.

La Reina gigante americana, “decapitada”

As you can see from the video, during yesterday’s procession in honor of San Fermín, the man carrying  Braulia, the American Queen, suffered a twisted ankle and   caused the giant to suffer this resounding fall just at the end of the Calle Mayor Street.

As a result of the accident, Braulia was almost toatally decapitated and suffered some serious damage to the neck. The figure had to taken out of the procession and repaired as quickly as possible, to ensure that it can continue to appear in the different parades which will take place over the coming days.

 

It seems that the repair work was successfully carried out as Braulia has appeared today completely restored as if nothing had ever happened. this is by no means the first time that these giant figures have suffered mishaps from falls. It happened to the African Queen not so long ago, when her nose was damaged after the man carrying the figure slipped up in the parade. (See the fall here)

 

La Comparsa baila para Kukuxumusu

Exactly in the year when two of the Kilikis figures, “Patata” and “Napoleón” are celebrating their hundredth annivesary, as well as two of the Zaldikos, the number one and number six, the whole entourage of the Giants and their figures have visited one of the Kukuxumusu Drawing Factory stores and they danced for all the public who happened to be nearby.

Just after ten o`clock this morning, the Giants’ Entourage made a stop on their daily parade through the streets ,in front of the Kukuxumusu store and dedicated a special dance to the firm. In exchange a small aperitif was handed round by Kukuxumusu staff to keep up the strength and spirits of the giant-sized figures and their followers so as to be able to continue their parade in front of the citizens of Pamplona around the city, as they do each morning of fiestas.

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Photos from the 12th of July

Una imagen Siniestra de Caravinagre

The Pamplona writer Jesús Carlos Gómez Martínez has just launched his latest book and the theme is the Sanfermin fiestas. The novel in its original Spanish version goes under the title “Siniestro Caravinagre” and the book features the popular Kiliki figure of Caravinagre (‘Vinegarface’), the detective Zero and the writer himself who has narrated the story. He gives us a singular view of Caravinagre, – dark, malicious and cruel. As the author states on the back cover of the book, the same character has threatened the author and all the readers who dare read the book. The book is now on sale at all bookshops in Pamplona in an edition from the publisher, Ediciones Eunate. The book is quite short with just 118 pages and it goes on sale at a price of 16 euro. ISBN: 978-84-7768-226-4

Jesús Carlos Gómez Martínez has long had a special relationship with the Sanfermin fiestas ever since he won the First International San Fermin Journalism Prize in 1991. He is also author of La historia Secreta de los Kilikis de Pamplona and of Sanfermines forever. On his own web page there is a full list of the prizes and awards earned by this writer.