El encierro

The encierro, or bull run, is the best known aspect of the festival and the one which has brought ¡t fame beyond our frontiers. lt is a multitud¡nous show of pride in our race whose fame has led to ¡t almost growing out of hand for those who really like to participase in ¡t.

Basically ¡t consists in running a stretch -the length will vary according to which part of the course- in front of the bulls which will take part in the afternoon's corrída. The run, of about 800 m. sets out from the corrals where the bulls have spent the night, in the outskirts of the old part and leads across town to the bullring where they enter the co rral to await their fate.

The story is simple: formerly, when the herdsmen brought their bulls across country from their pastures to be fought in the bullring, they used to spend the night near the city and on the day of the bullfight, at dawn, they would be run through the town accompanied by oxen or tame bulls and people who on horseback or running alongside, helped to drive them into the stalls with shouts and sticks. With time, nobody knows for sure when, people began the tradition of running in front of the bulls, instead of behind or urging them on from the sidelines. Thus, what began as a kind of help took on the character of entertainment until finally ¡t became the peculiar custom which distinguishes the fiestas of San Fermín, the encierro.

At the beginning, the first stretch of the run, the Cuesta de Santo Domingo, was reserved for the guild of butchers, and there was never an excessive number of runners.

Nowadays there are too many runners and, in spite of various disuasory and restrictiva measures, the bulls make the run completely surrounded -sometimes blocked- by the young people who invade the course before the first rocket announces the opening of the enclosure and the setting free of the bulls. Before this rocket the course is carefully swept and looked over slowly by the authorities. In order to avoid overerowding, wherever possible the run is sectioned off by the local police who withdraw moments before the bulls arrive. Just before eight o'clock the first runners, near the old military hospital, perfora the recent rite of singing to San Fermín in front of a niche in the wall, asking him for his guidance and blessing.

At eight o'clock a first rocket indicates the opening of the gate of the enclosure and a second announces that all the bulls have left and are running up the steep slope of the Cuesta de Santo Domingo, on their way to the Square infront of the City Hall. Having passed through there the bulls go into Mercaderes street and then on into Estafeta. From this point ¡t is normal for a bull to break away from the group, increasing the danger of someone being hurt. Estafeta street is straight, slightly uphill and long; at the end the section named de la Telefónica, crossing infront of the telephone exchange, begins the downhill slope leading to the passageway into the bull ring. This is a dangerous stretch, protected by two rows of fencing and inside the passage way, alcoves where people can take refuge if theyfall. Finally, after the funnel of the passageway the run breaks into a thousand pieces escaping in the shape of a fan away from the bunch of bulls which, if they are not distracted by the colourful human sea in front of their eyes, will go towards the door of the corrals, helped by the hearty cries of the dobladores beckoning them with their bullfighting capes.

When all the bulls are in the ring a third rocket is fired and, once they are through the door of the corral, a fourth announces that the encierro is over.