Not long to go ...
Not long to go ...
The Don Pablo restaurant in Pamplona was the scene today for the celebration of the Guiri Day fiesta and the presentation of the fourth Guiri del Año award. This award is given by Kukuxumusu each year in recognition of the role of the foreigners within the Sanfermin fiestas and the part they play in the annual festival in Iruñea/Pamplona. On this occasion the winner has been the German, Manfred Walloschke, a veteran visitor to Pamplona over the past 28 years.
Theb Award was handed over by one of the founders and the creative director of Kukuxumusu, Mikel Urmeneta, at an event celebrated in the Don Pablo restaurant in Pamplona. The event was attended by a large group of Germans who are all regular visitors to the fiestas of Sanfermin. Also in attendance were the "Guiri" winners of the award over the past three years. After the homage there was a full meal served for all those present.
Walloschke is a regular visitor to the Sanfermin fiestas. He arrived in Pamplona for the first time at the age of 19 and he is married to a local girl, Isabel Aguirre Baztán, whom he met during one of those early years at the fiestas. He is a bull-fighting fan, and used to run regularly in the running of the bulls - always at the stretch in Estafeta Street He must surely be one of the very few visitors that can sing traditional "jotas" songs with some ability.
Mikel Urmeneta, creative director at Kukuxumusu, believes that Walloschke more than deserves the award for his "genuine interest in all that happens at the fiestas" and "his keeness to see everything and attend all the events during Sanfermin, from rural sports to the bull fight, from the running of the bulls to the giants on parade".
With this award Kukuxumusu is paying homage in his name to "all the Germans who have been visiting the fiestas down the years". At the same time, Urmeneta reminds us that the Guiri del Año award "is really a way of showing all foreigners that they are welcome here and that they play a fundamental part in the fiestas as they have made them richer and and more interesting and universal with their presence."
Walloschke has now become the fourth foreigner to receive the award, after the Puerto Rican, Carmen Margarita Alicea in 2004 but now living in Sidney (Australia) , and in 2005 the award fell to Lore Monning yfrom New York while last year's winner was the Swedish man, Lars Ingvar Jungefors.
