Dear readers,

We are very glad to announce the start of the 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONTEST OF FLASH STORIES ON SAN FERMIN.

Lat yea we came up with this idea while drinking a bottle of red wine after a enjoying a nice dinner in our ‘Peña’, some two months ago. Since then, we have been preparing all the details with the valuable help of some friends (and sanfermin fanatics) from the winery Principe de Viana.

The stories can be written in english, spanish or basque and shall be no longer than 200 words.

We would like to thank our sponsor Principe de Viana for their support, as well as the Pamplona City Council for its cooperation.

Feel free to participate in this contest, which will serve as a warm-up for the fiesta.
There are very nice prices for the winners!.
The 10 better Flash Stories will be translated into the 3 official languages and will be stamped on a book.

If you want to get more information, just click here.

we are very glad to announce today the official start of the 1st INTERNATIONAL CONTEST OF FLASH STORIES ON SAN FERMIN.

We came up with this idea while drinking a bottle of red wine after a enjoying a nice dinner in our ‘Peña’, some two months ago. Since then, we have been preparing all the details with the valuable help of some friends (and sanfermin fanatics) from the winery Principe de Viana.

The stories can be written in english, spanish or basque and shall be no longer than 200 words.

We would like to thank our sponsor Principe de Viana for their support, as well as the Pamplona City Council for its cooperation.

Feel free to participate in this contest, which will serve as a warm-up for the fiesta.
There are very nice prices for the winners!.
If you want to get more information, just click here.

Yes, there are just six days left.
San Fermin starts (as always) on 6th July at 12:00 when a rocket is fired from a balcony in the Town Hall.
Everybody here feels excited about the festival; everything is now ready.
Most of the bulls have already arrived and are staying in the stables on the outskirts of the city (you can have a look at those massive animals at the ‘Corrales del Gas’).
If you have a walk through the old town, you will see how the wooden fences which mark the path for the running of the bulls, are being erected.
There is a saying in the city ‘it smells like bull’ to describe the feeling you get during the previous days to the festival.
You can see an unusual number of visitors (in comparison with the rest of the year) in the streets of this small town called Pamplona (or Iruña, as we call it in Basque).
So , what are you waiting for?
Hurry up, pack your things and come here if you do not want to miss one of these things you must experience at least once in a lifetime.

Well Heather, I can tell you that safety is not a major issue in Pamplona during the festival (nor during the rest of the year).
The only way you might risk your life comes if you decide to run in front of the bulls, otherwise there is not much you should be worried about.

Of course, you have to take care of pickpockets and the like (this is quite logical having in mind that the population of the city almost doubles its size on weekend during the festival).
Still, ours is a midsize town and I can assure you there have never been any crimes or serious offences reported during the festival (no, this is not like Rio de Janeiro in Carnival).

You can go out in the night really safe (if you are a girl for example, and you go out for a drink with another female friend, you do not need to worry about safety, being raped, or anything like that..).
Crime rate in this town is really low and the probability of something bad happening to any visitors is not higher than in their hometowns.
I will not say that everything is perfect, but the city is pretty safe and also police is not corrupt and you can trust them (well, to the same extent as in other western countries).

Do any of the readers have any comments or would like to share with us their personnal experiences about his topic?

Sometimes I wonder why people from the other side of the world are coming to our city in order to run the bulls. Do you know or understand why people from Pamplona do that? Do you admire our traditions and want to imitate us? Or are you a simple fan of risky sports like rafting or so and want to have a go at the ‘Encierro’?

Sincerely I wouldn’t travel to jump into the Krakatoa vulcano, for instance, although I love native traditions.

So why do you come here? Does blood attract you? Do you really know that you may loose your life or make somebody else to loose it?

If you see the photo below, are you still interested in running or are you even more interested?

Please, let me know your opinion, dear reader…

If you only have references about San Fermin based on TV or Hemingway’s ‘The sun…’ you may not have noticed one of the main elements in our fiesta: Peñas.

What does that strange word mean? Peñas are a kind of clubs in Pamplona where you may go in, only if you are a member. But during Sanfermines, Peñas are open for anybody, no matter if you are native or foreigner, boy or girl, leftish or rightish, poor or rich. These Peñas have bars in the Old Part of Iruña*, where members of these clubs work as waiters. As they are not profesionals, drink prices are lower than in normal bars and the atmosphere is very funny and popular.

Apart from these bars, each Peña has its own music band you may find playing on streets, surrounded by a lot of people and going from bar to bar, singing and dancing, following a banner.

If you respect musicians and rest of people from Peña, you will be accepted and perhaps you may have the best hours in your life.

For further information (in Basque and Spanish languages), consult http://websanfermin.com/web/index.htm

*Iruña is the Basque name of Pamplona.

Allora, questa premissa e corretta, ma abbiamo un grande problema con la prima parte della composizione: le ragazze sono come il sole, ma… come fare la constatazione?

In questo articolo vai trovare una formula che non e sufficiente, ma altamente necessaria: per ottenere un trionfo amoroso con una pamplonesa, tu devi essere un saltimbanco.

Il mero fatto di essere transalpino gia e un punto a favore, e si la tua maglia e tanto piccola quanto la della squadra azzurra, per que ti voglio contare.
Il rostro abronzatto per il sole, la tua melena sventolante, le muscoli delineati, una voce profonda e suggerente, lo sguardo levemente strabico, … tutto questo e molto importante, ma insisto, non serve a niente si non hai destrezza acrobatica.

Tu puoi stare pensando, per che devo essere un acrobata?

Molto facile, caro amico. Abbi fede alla nostra esperienza di molti anni. ¿Come aspiri a sorpassare il perimetro de securezza chi formano le amiche della ragazza senza fare una cabriola mortale con duplice tirabuzzone e mezzo?

But let’s keep to the point; the fact that this being an open event, has ended up jeopardizing its own future.
There are so many participants that the bulls are mostly surrounded by people (especially on weekends) and therefore it is getting more and more difficult for the runners to really enjoy the event as the streets are overcrowded.
As a matter of fact, one has to pay as much attention to other runners as to the bulls themselves.
Additionally, live broadcast on TV is attracting a lot of people who do not run for the sake of it, but just because they want to have their fifteen minutes of fame.

So the question is now, who has the right to decide who can run and who can’t? and how can this be done?

Is it a challenge to measure the popularity of the Sanfermines, or is it a tourist resource to improve the economy of the town?. We all know that money makes the world go round, so why not use the popularity of the festival to promote tourism in Pamplona?.

It is for sure that Sanfermines will not benefit much from it, since Sanfermines is a festival known in the whole world for itself and does not really need to increase its popularity.

Usually we complain on Saturdays during Sanfermines, because of the big amount of visitors (over 200.000 in the first weekend of ‘ 07).

If it becomes even more popular … we will have to organise additional ‘’encierro’’ (running of the bulls) in every neighbourhood of the city, to distribute the more than 3.500 corridors on weekends! … of course of 825 meters each one of them….

It is clear that if we say that one of the key differences with other festivals, as for example the April fair in Seville, is the atmosphere in the street … I don’t know how it will be possible to keep this same atmosphere 365 days a year!. With this, we forget one of the fundamental points of the festival … the people. Bad choice.