This morning we once again made the suggestion to Google that they should dedicate their Doodle on the 7th of July to the Sanfermin fiestas. The Doodle is the drawing which appears on the search page when anyone enters to make a search of any kind and the drawing is often made in homage and in dedication to different worthy people and events… A creative team at Google is responsible for selecting the themes and making the corresponding drawing. We hope to convince them with your proposals on the theme of Sanfermin. This is something we already tried some years ago, without success and this time we hope to convince them with the help of all of you.

This form aims to gather some good reasons that we will then forward to Google and in this way we may stimulate their disposition towards dedicating the 7th of July to the Sanfermin fiestas. We propose these options but you may also come up with others which can be inserted in the Others field.

You can visit the Google Doodles web page to see the extensive and praiseworthy work which is carried out by this particular Google team.

Can you image AC/DC with a Sanfermin necktie on? Well, there is no need to try to image it, but the photos make it pretty clear. In this image we can see Brian Johnson alongside Rudy Goroskieta, program commentator for Rockefor radio – now known as radio Bit.fm. In 1996, Rudy was the presenter of Cadena 100 of the same program. Thanks to Rudy himself we learned about this story which he himself has described as “The wildest moment in his life” and which end up with a red Sanfermin necktie being put around the neck of the members of this legendary Australian rock band.

Let’s go back to July, 1996 when there was an initiative undertaken by Cadena 100 radio and Planet Rock to take 20 coaches from Pamplona to Madrid to see AC/DC play live right in the middle of Sanfermin fiestas. The Aussie group was going to play over four nights in Madrid as part of their “Ballbreak Tour” and they opened up on the 10th of July – a special day also because it was planned to film them with David Mallet as director, so as to create a DVD of their world tour. As the concert was being held within a bullring, the promotion slogan read “NO BULL” and the poster showed a bullfighter making a pass of his cape with the guitarist from the group, Angus Young.

The Las Ventas bullring was packed with fans but the group could not help but notice a large number of fans were wearing red neckties – those who had come from Pamplona on the 20 coaches. The band members asked the producer why all these people were wearing red neckties. The producer explained to them that those members of the public had come down from Pamplona, which was just then having its bullrunnings in the middle of their annual fiestas . When they heard this, the group members wanted to immediately meet some of the fiestas fans and they called Rudy Goroskieta up. As Rudy himself puts it: “Suddenly I found myself in front of the band. I tied on a red necktie around each member of the group and I felt like I was the mayor of the city for a moment. They even asked me about the KOMA T-shirt which I was wearing. Then, they started asking me about the running of the bulls, the bulls, the fiestas…I WAS BLOWING MY MIND OUT OVER THE WHOLE SCENE…”

And that is how AC/DC ended up with the Sanfermin necktie around their necks.

IKEA España has presented its new system of Retail on its web page and it has made use of some Sanfermin images for its promotion. And the firm has done so because the first of these new retail outlets has been opened in Pamplona and as the presentation video itself explains : “for this great Chupinazo-type opening what’s better than to set up the first of the IKEA Retail Outlets in a city which knows how to celebrate things in high style: Pamplona”. Here is the video.

The video recording shows us how we can have the opportunity to make out our order to the Swedish Factory from Mercaderes Corner or from the Plaza del Castillo, and then later on, go to the outlet to pick up the order. The Sanfermin atmosphere starts with the fact that the good news sets off a kind of Chupinazo adrenalin and then goes on to show significant places around the city such as the monument to the running of the bulls, the cathedral or the façade of City Hall. Then the video tells us that we have the possibility of making out our orders from any part of the stretch of the running of the bulls, or from the main square in the Plaza del Castillo or even from the monument to Sarasate.

The Sanfermin fiesta atmosphere continues by showing the moment of sending off the order to the Factory with a visual of a runner escaping from a bull and also showing a Kiliki figure as it chases after some kids. Finally, as we quietly await the delivery of our order, we can see a classic moment of a Hemingway figure having a drink at what seems to be a terrace bar in the Plaza del Castillo square.

Once again Sanfermin fiestas show us the relevance of its image for many big commercial brands whenever Pamplona is being referred to. It is very clear that the Sanfermin icons and the terminology of the fiestas are easily recognizable in any corner of the Spanish state. We liked the video quite a lot.

One of the best-written views taken of the last Sanfermin fiestas was that of the Italian journalist and writer, Alexandro Baricco, for Vanity Fair Italia. In the paper edition of this magazine published on the 19th of July in Italy, there were four full pages given over to the fiestas of Sanfermin. While the photos were exclusively dedicated to capturing The Running of the Bulls and the Txupinazo, the written text in fact hardly mentions The Running of the Bulls and most of the text deals with the customs that exist for the fiestas in general and more particularly for the opening Txupinazo event.

The headline of the report reads “The Bulls are coming (and I have nothing to put on)” and the subtitle takes us directly into the fiesta scene: “And so I went to Pamplona and I discovered that San Fermín is not the patron of that city and that my jeans made me look like a foreigner. I also discovered that it is not a good idea to be on the streets of the old quarter between 8a.m. and 8.02 a.m. I also learned that there exists a selfie which is better not taken and I discovered one of the 25 most elegant ways of dying.” 

This suggestive approach to the fiestas of San Fermín by way of Running of the Bulls indicates an original and distinctive kind of writer. Baricco is recognized worldwide for his literary piece
–Seday- and other works such as City, Emaús or This Story (Consult references here). With the quality shown in his report here he approaches the level of acclaimed writers such as Dos Passos or Hemingway who discovered the greatness of these fiestas through their quality writing.

Alessandro Baricco arrived last 6th of July to Pamplona and he attended the first Running of the Bulls on the morning of the 7^th after spending all of the 6^th enjoying the opening Txupinazo event which continued into the morning of the 7^th and the first bullrunning. We know this because he himself narrates this in his report and we also know that his agency had rented a balcony from one of the Balconies de Sanfermin.com by Locals in Estafeta Street to watch the bullrunning event from there. In his report Baricco tries to resolve the dilemma which he had long held in mind – whether the Sanfermin fiestas were a total nonsense or whether they could really provide a fantastic experience which shouldn’t be missed by anyone. As a novel witness and participant in the whole scene he describes a passionate and intense initiation into the fiestas and mentions some of the norms to aid in getting a total immersion in the fiestas such as dressing up in the traditional all-white gear, for instance.

Baricco also tells us about the great surprise it was for him to discover that San Fermín is not, in fact, the patron saint of the city of Pamplona and develops the idea that having the fiestas in November was not a very wise thing to do and holding them in July was much better. He also asks himself why – given that there are many other places around Spain that hold bullrunnings, and in many cases in prettier places than Pamplona, – why is it that Pamplona has become the world-wide reference for The Running of the Bulls. His answer is clear – it is thanks to the influence of Ernest Hemingway and perhaps to two of his sentences from his novel Fiesta: “ I can’t stand the idea of seeing my life pass by and not do anything to live it to the full” as well as the line “Nobody really lives all his life to the full, except bullfighters.”

The Chicago Bulls are going to hold a draw with a prize of a trip to Sanfermin 2015 thus joining in with the Kukuxumusu initiative of having a draw with the first prize of a trip to the greatest party of them all. The NBA ha set up a  special site on the web page of the Chicago Bulls for all those who wish to participate. However, admittance is restricted to all legal residents within the areas of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin and who are over 21 years of age. The competition has been open since the past 9th of February and the closing dateline will be the 23^rd of March.

The top prize is a trip to Spain which includes a flight from Chicago to Madrid with three nights in a hotel in the capital. Then a further three nights in a hotel in Pamplona and special VIP treatment as guests at the Running of the Bulls event. Two runners-up prizes consist of special passes to watch the Chicago Bulls in action with access to the basketball court and the gift of a signed jersey from Pau Gasol. The prizes are sponsored by the Chicago office of Tour España.