Last year a young man dressed in Sanfermin gear joined in an imitation run of the Sanfermin bullrunnings in Australia which has become known as the Running of the Sheep from Boorowa. Now, we have learned that really it was done as part of a short documentary film from Sam Matthews which has now been selected for the TropFest and Stellar Film Festival. This incident made headlines in the local press at the time and the event continues to be promoted on a web site.
The video which Mathews has now posted up shows us a young man who goes by the name of Jorge (Sam Mathews), who states that he was born in Pamplona and is now Australian by adoption and, as he could not attend the real Sanfermin (The running of the bulls) event, he decided to participate in an Australian version. This is the “Running of the Sheep” and the sheep parade is a highlight of the yearly festival of the Irish Wool Fest (celebrating Irish wool products). This consists of a parade of a large flock of sheep. Boorowa is a sheep growing town located half-way between Canberra and Sydney with a long tradition of sheep farming.
On the video we can now see how the incident was developed. The runner dresses up in his red and white Sanfermin gear and how he is then dismayed to hear the news that nobody runs in front of the flock of sheep. However, in spite of this, when the sheep appear, Jorge (Sam Matthews) jumps the fencing and starts to run in front of the sheep. This incident causes the police to arrest him and he makes headline news in the local media. Jorge appears in the front page of the Boorowa News as Jorge and is reported as having been born in Pamplona and they report how he states that his sheep runners would be candidates to take part in the next Melbourne Cup.
