Foreign peñas

To call some of these people "foreigners" seems unjust for they have been coming for so long, year after year, that they have already become "pamploneses"

It is said that this is the first foreign peña that came to Pamplona. From 1961, without fail, they have come every year from the city of Lund in Sweden. Nowadays they only meet for the festivals and they like to wear a blue blouse with yellow neck and cuffs. The scarf is blue too and they stay at La Perla Hotel in the Plaza del Castillo. The late Anders Thornberg was the founder. Bulls are their passion. Actually Chirster Oleby is the president of the peñas and in 2007 they will come back again to Sanfermin to the new Hotel La Perla, where they used to meet.

They began in 1988, but some of the members came to Pamplona many years before. You will find them in the Eslava Hostal and among the different events of the festivals they prefer the ones related with the bulls. The founder was Tor Engebakken and now Lars Grinde is the president.

The experiences of the great American writer Ernest Hemingway in Pamplona during the Sanfermin festival and the book he wrote about the fiesta attracted many Americans to the festivals. The Club Taurino of New York started in 1978 and it's members were in love with the Sanfermin festival. Since then they have come every year with a red scarf around the neck. They are quite well known because they like to meet up in the Bar Txoko in the Plaza del Castillo every morning after the running of the bulls.

http://mundo-taurino.org/ct_n_y.html

Around 100 people met in Miami in 1985 to celebrate a typical Sanfermin weekend. Since then they organize parties similar to the Sanfermin festival in the Caribbean, but in July they come to Pamplona year after year. They stay in the Windsor Hostal in the Plaza del Castillo, just beside La Perla. You may identify them by their scarves, which read: Los Amigos de Pamplona de Miami.

The peña started back in the mid 70's when a mixed European bunch started to meet up each year in the Casa Flores; a typical bar of the festivals situated in the Estafeta street. Some of them have been coming to Pamplona for nearly 20 years.

In the 80's they became the Peña Flores with people from Scotland, Germany, England, Ireland, Holland, Sweden, America ...etc. The Dutch people of the peña made a group themselves and at the end of the 80's-beginning of the 90's they began meeting along with the Peña Flores in the Gutter outside the Bar Txoko. They were looking for a new name and finally they decided that it would be a good idea to call themselves the Txokos Gutter Club.

They organize a Vodka party every year. The party began when some members of the Peña celebrated their 10th anniversary. They still keep up the tradition that only members with more than 10 years in the Peña are entitled to invite some other people to the Vodka Party.

The annual Pelota Competition (a softball version) they started in 1995 it is open to teams of three and it is held in the open air pelota court behind the Estafeta.

http://users.powernet.co.uk/pamplona/ ("No Bullshit!" magazine by Graeme Galloway, member of Txocos Gutter, lot of practical info on the fiesta).

Founded in the summer of 1972 in Pamplona as the RdSFFTAELS (the Robert de San Fermin Free Thinking and Easy Living Society) and they meet once a year to celebrate the Sanfermin festivals. Their Sanfermin headquarters is the Hotel Avenida of Pamplona and the peña is open to anyone who has been to Sanfermin and survived the running of the bulls, or have some relationship with the Basque Club of Seattle and The Scarlet Macaw association.

http://thescarletmacaw.com/club_taurino_seattle.htm

The members of the Peña Osasuna belong to the Centro Navarro de Rosario. The members of the Peña Osasuna, descendants of inmigrants from Navarre, try to keep up the Navarrese traditions. Every year, they celebrate the Sanfermin festival in the Centro Navarro and follow the fiesta closely. They also organize a parade of giants and "cabezudos" to the local Cathedral, where mass is heard.

Inside the Centro Navarro there are also the peña "Oberena", made up by women and the peña "La Jarana", made up by the young danzaris of the Centro Navarro.

Centro Navarro de Rosario
Entre Ríos 248
2000 - Rosario - Santa Fe (Argentina)
Tf.: 54 341 4215708
virgiliocentral@arnet.com.ar

They started to came to Pamplona in 1978, after the "riots" when German Rodriguez was killed and the festival was cancelled. They met a local, who suggested them to form their own peña. They only meet in Pamplona during Sanfermin and tend to be of more "mature years". As they say, the ravages of Time, The Taxman and too much patxaran has cut them down a bit. Their president is Bruce Clark, from Australia and most of the members are "aficionados" of the Corrida. The used to organize lunches and dinners and nowadays they can mostly be found in the Santo Domingo Market bar around 12.30 p.m. This bar closed when the market does, at 2.30 p.m., and that's the hour when they know it is time to eat.

If you want to contact them here you have their e-mail address: lennox_wilson@hotmail.com

This peña was set up in 1995 by some friends from Villeneuve de Marsan (100 km. from Bayonne-French State-) who usually came to Pamplona for the festival. The 19 members come every year for the festival and one day they bring their children with them. They like the txupinazo that announces the commencement of the Fiesta, the running of the bulls (they don't take part), the atmosphere during the day and at night in the old part of the city, etc. You can meet them at the bar of the municipal market in La Mañueta street at 12.00. Their logo is the very same image of San Fermín and they also celebrate the "Pobre de mí" in their town.

You can find information about this italian peña at their website.