After the closure of the establishment of Pío Guerendiáin and traditional San Fermin that adorned the curve of the bull runnings and was used by many brokers to commend the saint, Kukuxumusu has painted this early mourning a San Fermin at their Mercaderes 19 shop entry. Nobody is missing.
Carousing, partying, debauchery, merriment. Year after year, Sanfermin never fails to deliver an authentic rave-up. And here at Kukuxumusu we too join whole-heartedly in all the fun with our drawings, our up-to-the-minute reports at the Sanfermin.com web page and also by organizing some cool scenes so that the thousands of visitors who come from all over the world will depart happy and content and ready to return the following year for more of the same.
Englishman Tim Pinks will be acknowledged as Foreigner of the Year in Sanfermin 2016 with the award of the XIII Guiri del Año Award, which is bestowed each year during Sanfermin by Kukuxumusu and Sanfermin.com to a foreigner visitor to Sanfermin fiestas and who stands out for their passion and love of the annual fiestas. In this, the thirteenth edition of the awards, this English columnist and writer will don the mantle conceded by last year’s winner, Frenchman, Jean-Pierre Gonnord.
Sanfermin festival and the running of the bulls are coming. Click to see all the t-shirts for Sanfermin festival 2016 by Kukuxumusu.
There is not long to go now before the start of Sanfermin and we have decided to warm up for the great event with this new T-shirt which serves as a taste of what is to come within a short month or so. At the same time, we wish to pay homage to the bull “Curioso”, the rebel bull that rebelled against its destiny and refused to take part in the Running of the Bulls.
It has become the “meme” of Sanfermin 2015, the most popular viral content in all the social networks. Practically everyone or everything that has a connection with Sanfermin and with Pamplona or with the fiestas, yesterday received this photo which shows a young man holding desperately to one of the fencing posts, as the worker is taking down the bullrunning fencing.
The most colorful and thrilling Running of the Bulls of Sanfermin 2015 featured the three Kukuxumusu blue bulls. The event took place at 7.00 p.m. in the afternoon and was attended by hundreds of kiddies and parents all ready to run against the herd of blue fighting bulls from the Kukuxumusu bull-ranch.
Imanol y Alicia se apellidan igual, González, son pareja y son muy afortunados. Han pasado dos días de juerga cinco estrellas en Sanfermin. Es el pedazo de premio que les ha tocado en el sorteo del ’26 Anibestiario’ de Kukuxumusu y que han disfrutado gracias a Sanfermin by Locals, el servicio turístico que ofrecen Destino Navarra y Sanfermin.com.
Para ella, es la primera vez. Imanol ya había estado un par de veces con su cuadrilla, a lo hippy, haciendo juerga toda la noche hasta después del encierro y durmiendo en el coche. Pero esta año ha podido descansar junto a su chica en un hotel cinco estrellas, “la cama se agradece mucho”, comenta entre risas.
Cuando la gente con la que han compartido algunos momentos de la estancia –turistas sudamericanos en su mayoría– se enteraba de su historia, los miraban con envidia y bromeaban. Desayuno de lujo en el Casino, cena especial, balcón, fuegos artificiales…
La pareja, que parece salida de “Ocho apellidos vascos”, se ha metido en la fiesta como si rodaran la segunda parte de la película más taquillera de los últimos años. Él es vasco, de Bilbao. Ella, de Cáceres, de Torrejón el Rubio, y lleva el sur en las venas.
¿Qué se llevan de Pamplona? “Una experiencia muy bonita y un gran agradecimiento”, explican ya de vuelta a Bilbao, donde residen. De los muchos momentos que han vivido, se quedan con la vista de los fuegos artificiales desde la terraza del Baluarte, “desde ahí se ve parte de la muralla de ocho kilómetros, que rodea la ciudad, y que tiene una historia interesante”, dice Imanol.
A ellos les ha gustado conocer el porqué de nuestras tradiciones. Lo han sabido gracias en el encierro-tour, una visita guiada en la que se explica el origen del pañuelo rojo, “decapitaron al santo, San Fermín, por defender a los cristianos, y el pañuelo rojo simboliza la sangre, el martirio que sufrió“. También han escuchado la historia del encierro, que empezó siendo un traslado de ganado de un punto a otro de la ciudad.
A Imanol le apasionan los toros y, aunque nunca ha corrido el encierro, cree que alguna vez lo hará. Le gustan sobre todo las corridas de toros a pie, sin caballo. Y por supuesto ha disfrutado viendo el encierro desde un balcón: “Se hace muy corto pero la visión es estupenda”.
Les pregunto si volverán. “¡Seguro!”. Eso esperamos. Kukuxumusu nació en 1989 bajo los efectos del kalimotxo, durante unos sanfermines, y lo hemos querido celebrar invitando a los ganadores a esta singular fiesta. No podía ser de otra manera.
Fotos: Maite H. Mateo
El francés Jean Pierre Gonnord ha recibido hoy el XII Premio Guiri de Sanfermin, galardón que cada año entrega la firma Kukuxumusu para reconocer a los extranjeros que viven con pasión las fiestas.
Si quieres conocer un poco más a Jean Pierre Gonnord, mira el vídeo de cuando le visitamos en su trabajo en Pau y en su pueblo Jurancon.
Televisión Española (Spanish State Television) returns to Sanfermin fiestas yet again this year, thanks to the large audience response achieved down the years and to the quality of the spectacle as well as the international response in the transmission of the Running of the Bulls. From the h 6th to the 14th of July there will be special daily programs broadcast. The 2014 Running of the Bulls saw the second highest audience share in the history of the broadcasts (the highest ever figures were achieved in 2010). According to a statement issued by RTVE they had an average of “1.741.000 viewers and a 73. 6% share between the first channel and their 24 Hour news channel. More than 4,6 million viewers watched at least some part of the running of the bulls broadcasts on TVE.”
Furthermore, Kukuxumusu will once again be responsible for the cartoon figures used to market the Sanfermin programming on TVE and will design the graphic elements to be used in the RTVE special broadcast programs for Sanfermin both for the Chupinazo opening event and for the daily bullrunnings.
Besides, the quality response shown by RTVE is endorsed by their use of a High Quality Transmission, with 25 different cameras being used for the daily broadcasting of the Running of the Bulls. One of the cameras will have a zip-line prop to provide a bird’s eye view of the bullrunning. There will be a total professional staff of more than eighty people employed to broadcast the Pamplona Running of the Bulls.
The signal which will be used by the TVE 1, the 24 hours Channel, The Internacional Channel and the web page rtve.es has been taken up by Esquire Network as the source for its retransmissions for The United States and for all the channels that will use this supplier. The famous Men in Blazers will be the anchormen that present the Running of the Bulls live.
In the press launch this morning both Elena Sánchez and Javier Solano spoke about the work they hope to achieve during Sanfermin. Elena Sánchez wished to emphasize the capacity of the RTVE national channel for its ability to broadcast live events and underlined the fact that there will be five live points that will be active throughout the broadcasting of the Running of the Bulls for RTVE. He went on to say that the Running of the Bulls event is now “more crowded, more difficult to run well, but not necessarily more dangerous”. Here he is:
