Pamplona Launches 9-Day San Fermín Festival With Txupinazo Rocket

Q: After the dangerous morning run through Pamplona's streets, what is the ultimate fate of the bulls?

After the morning run, the bulls are taken into Pamplona’s bullring and are typically killed in bullfights later the same day. That is the traditional endpoint of the San Fermín *encierro*: the animals run the 875-meter course through the old city in the morning, enter the arena, and then appear in the afternoon’s bullfighting program. The six fighting bulls used in the run are generally fought one by one by matadors and do not return to the ranch. This is central to the festival’s historical origin. The bull run began as a way of moving bulls from outside the city into the bullring, where they would later be used in the day’s corrida. That link between the street run and the afternoon bullfight remains intact today, and it is also the main reason animal-rights groups protest the event.

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Jul 9

Pamplona opened its annual San Fermín festival on July 6 as the traditional txupinazo rocket signaled the start of nine days of nonstop celebrations.
Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected in the northern Spanish city for the festival, whose hallmark is the daily running of the bulls.
Parades, music, religious ceremonies and round-the-clock street parties fill out the program beyond the bull runs.
The event’s global profile still owes much to Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises,” which reaches its 100th anniversary this year.