Until next year

15/07/2010. Thousands of people gathered for the “Pobre de mí"closing ceremony to say “adios” to Sanfermin 2010

Singing in unison the song, "Pobre de Mí" and holding lighted candles in their hands, thousands of people said farewell to Sanfermin 2010 at midnight last night in front of City Hall and among the surrounding streets of the old part of Pamplona. . The Mayor of Pamplona, Yolanda Barcina stepped out onto the balcony of City Hall just before the clock struck midnight to bring the curtain down on this year's festivities and to sing the popular song. After the song, the candles were extinguished and the fiesta was over.

Pamplona now says farewell to all the partying and high excitement, where both local people and visitors who came to the city could enjoy all the partying, music, shows, bulls and good ambience on offer. This year, even the weather proved benign for fiestas that showed a drop in the number of visitors compared to last year.

The carton figures of the Giants and their Troupe were the most special features of this year's fiestas as they celebrated their 150th anniversary. They were the ones who opened the fiestas this year when they launched the txupinazo opening rocket and yesterday on the last day they said farewell to all the kids who had followed them during this Sanfermin 2010.Likewise, all the street performances, the music shows and other cultural activities showed that the bulls are not the only epicenter of the fiestas. There are many other ways of having a really good time too. Perhaps, above all, this year where the running of the bulls ran their predictable course and did not cause any real surprises and where there was no cause to lament any fatalities as had been the case last year with the death of the young Madrid runner, Daniel Jimeno.

Furthermore, although the fiestas are now officially over, not a few revelers continued this morning with their own particular fiestas with the popular encierro del 15 de julio, which started off by running in front of a local bus. The habitual pack of bulls are substituted for an urban city bus that comes up the same route of Santo Domingo.

Now, Pamplona is at rest, but it is already counting down the hours until Sanfermin 2011. The countdown has begun and within 356 days Pamplona will be buzzing in fiesta time once again.