Acceptable Behaviour

You can be a boor all day long if you want. The people in general can "act the idiot" and if they are being "smartalecks" or "funny" then they are tolerated in a way that they wouldn't normally be. It's a good moment to throw that "cream pie" in someone's face or pull some similar tasteless joke on someone, should you be so inclined, and you know you can get away with it.

You can also parade round in any old scruffy gear, dirty yourself to your heart's content - nobody will take any notice during these days. It's part of the "charm" of the Fiesta.

At the same time, when there are big gatherings such as at the "Chupinazo" or the "Riau-Riau", you have to accept without protest that anyone spraying champagne round or people from the balconies pouring water on the people, can dirty your clothes. Also at the bullring, among the "Peñas" there is a good chance that you could get your clothes stained and you just have to take it with a pinch of salt. In the bars too, you have to accept that with all the dancing and pushing and shoving going on, that your clothes can come out the worse for wear.

However, something very different would be if you had the sudden bright idea of pouring a pint of beer over some stranger's head just because you fancy the idea. Here, you have stepped out of line and the recipient of your tastleness joke has every right in the world to take justice into his hands.

Inevitably there is a lot of pushing and shoving going on. The bars are packed, the streets are packed, the city is packed. However, if you are going to act like a bull in a china shop everywhere you go without taking even the minimum care of who or what you are stepping on, then you can expect to get a deserved reprimant from time to time.

In general, San Fermin is a rowdy Fiesta, and so it accepts with good grace that the people will act the idiot, do a lot of shouting, singing and screaming, sleep rough, roll in the dirt, etc. as long as it's all in good clean fun. You'll only really offend when you do something in a mean smallminded way.

As long as it's fun, practically anything goes.