Cheap Apartments in Javea

Spain is well known for its fiestas. There is some festival or the other in every town, city and village of the country that makes people come out on the streets and have fun. One of the major festivals of the region is the Pamplona bull running festival. This festival begins on the 6th of July every year. It starts with the event of “chupinazo” that happens on the Casa Consistorial located in Pamplona.

The people come together in the square and wait for the mayor to officially announce that the festival has begun. A rocket is launched and partying commences amidst much fanfare. The festival today is characterized by music, a bullfight, a procession, fireworks, dancing and much merriment. The event is held from July 7th to July 10th.

There are no proper records as to when the festival started to be held. There are evidences that the festival happened as early as the 13th century and that at that time it was held in the month of October. It can be inferred that the modern day festival has developed from this festival as well as the other commercial as well as bullfighting fiestas that were held at that time.

Over the years the festival has been shifted to the month of July, at a time when the weather is conducive for the celebration. The festival was held for the first time officially in July in 1591. The inaugural fiesta was held for only two days and was a subdued affair. From the 17th and the 18th centuries foreigners started participating in the festival as well. Gradually the religious flavor of the festival gave way to mere merry making and there are reports about the clergy being concerned about the permissiveness of the young people.

As the festival moved to the 19th century fairground attractions became a part of the festival. There were circus animals and canon balls that were present during the festival. It was only in the 20th century that the word about the festival spread across the globe and visitors thronged to the place to participate in the festival. Ernest Hemmingway’s novel titled “The sun also rises” published in 1926 also helped the popularity of the festival to spread.

The Bull Run is held from 8 am in the morning. It is conducted everyday till 14th July. The length of the track is from Coral at Santo Domingo to a bullring where there the bull fight is scheduled to be held in the afternoon. The bulls have to run a length of 825 meters and the time taken to run is three minutes. The tickets of the festival are sold out in advance.

The arena can accommodate 12,500 people at a time. Over the last few decades the event has acquired wide publicity and thousands of visitors attend the festival each year. Every year at the time of the festival the population of the country increases by thousands as people from across the globe comes to witness the festival. Accommodation has to be booked well in advance to participate in the festival.