Pamplona

Feria del Toro, the “running of the bulls”...

There are two basic ways to attend the fiesta in Pamplona.

The first, and by far most popular, is to do what tens of thousands of others have done over the years; make your own arrangements. Papa Hemingway did so when he first visited the city to attend the fiesta, but there is one small problem with this method, which is the same now as it was then, unless you are familiar with the city and surrounding area, it is often difficult to decide where to stay. You don’t want to be too far out because of the difficulty of getting into the Old City for the fiesta. Besides a shortage of available rooms, affordable rooms are often difficult to find, even outside of the city center. All of the hotels, hotel-apartments and hostels raise their rates 3 to 5 times the normal rate during the fiesta. Most hotels begin charging this festival rate on the 5th of July, but a few begin charging their festival rate as early as the 4th. Another problem in trying to make your own arrangements is that although a few hotels will accept early bookings, the majority of hotels in the city center do not set their official festival rates until the end of the year and generally will not accept reservations before then unless you are a regular client of the hotel. Response time can also be very slow in some cases.

As you may already be aware, many of the Spanish visitors to the fiesta either stay with friends or family. Younger visitors from around Spain usually end up sleeping on the ground in one of the city’s parks, while most of the younger foreign visitors, many of whom arrive with backpacks, either end up sleeping on the ground along with thousands of others, or, if they are lucky, find an opening at one of the many campgrounds in the Navarran countryside, some of which are “far from the madding crowds”.”

The second, though not quite as popular but undoubtedly the best way for a foreign visitor to experience this unique fiesta, is to book with a professional travel company or tour group providing a full array of services, someone who is actively involved in the fiesta and has a good relationship with the hotels they work with. You can make the arrangements through your local travel agent, one who has the right connections, or directly with a company that specializes in the fiesta and offers the services that we here at Iberian Traveler - Maribel’s Guides provide; a special hotel package at a select hotel in the city, reservations on one of our balconies for the encierro, the running of the bulls, additional festival programs that can add to your enjoyment and experience, restaurant recommendations and other personalized services to make your stay as fulfilling and interesting as possible. We feel that it’s one thing to attend the fiesta on your own or with family and friends, but actually becoming involved in and being a part of the fiesta is something only a specialist can provide.

Of course there is a third way of attending the fiesta. If you know someone who has been there before they might be able to introduce you to some aspects of the fiesta. If you know someone like this, they are usually very enthusiastic, but may not have experienced those parts of the fiesta that actually make it unique and one of the most popular festivals in Europe. But that’s not to say that you still can’t have a good time and go home with great memories.

Many of us who now do this for a living started out this way, building on our experiences over the years, forming relationships and close friendships, as the fiesta became part of our lives. In turn, we try to provide the best possible experience for all of our clients, some of whom have become our friends, returning as often as possible to enjoy the fiesta with us and the people of Pamplona, who welcome everyone to their city.

A little more about the city and the fiesta

The city of Pamplona goes all out for the fiesta, one of the largest in Spain, providing everything free of charge except for bullfight tickets. There are music concerts everyday beginning on the 6th of July with a mix of regional and international musicians, who this year included the Gypsy Kings and our friend and noted Basque musician, Kepa Junkera. The fiesta includes traditional Basque sports, a major international fireworks competition with displays nightly, special days set aside for children and seniors and a separate children’s festival, the magic of the historic Gigantes and Cabezudos (giants and big heads), the kilikis and zaldikos and the traditional Procession of San Fermin, where the people pay homage to one of city’s two patron saints.

The fiesta attracts ten of thousands of visitors from throughout Spain and around the world. The numbers have grown substantially since the early 90’s, but until recently all of the hotels, hotel-apartments and hostals in the city were primarily serving the needs of those visiting the Clínica Universitaria de Navarra (Navarre University Hospital), one of Spain’s premier hospital facilities and medical universities.

With only about 1300 hotel rooms located within the city center, i.e. easy walking distance of the Casa Viejo, the Old City and the center of the fiesta, and an equal number of rooms further out, from 4 and 10 km distance from the city center, Pamplona is unable to easily accommodate such a huge daily influx of visitors to the fiesta seeking hotel rooms or restaurant reservations. If you are interested in attending the fiesta, you have to plan as far in advance as possible. Of the total number of hotel rooms in the city center, less than half are ever available during the fiesta because of the returning clientele. Some families have been staying at the same hotel for generations and their rooms are always held aside for them.

Most of the hotels located within the city center are either 3 or 4-star, but there are a few 2-star hotels. There is one 5-star hotel, the GH La Perla of Hemingway fame, and a couple of new premium hotels scheduled to open soon; one boutique-style luxury hotel in the Casa Viejo and an all-suites luxury hotel early next summer, possibly in time for the fiesta. Two additional boutique hotels are due to open sometime in the near future, one associated with the Tour de France legend Miguel Indurain, who lives in Pamplona with his family, but no one seems to know exactly when they will open, but when they finally do, they are only expected to add an additional handful of rooms to the total. It’s not much when you consider that the city receives an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 visitors a day during the week and up to 200,000 over the weekend, doubling its population.

If you are planning on staying outside of the city center, you will have to rely on public transportation or taxis to get you to and from the hotel as parking in the city can be a problem anytime of the year, let alone during the fiesta. And this is after the city has added hundreds of underground parking places the last few years. The city has been allowing free parking in the blue zones during the fiesta, but these spaces are limited as the cars parked there seldom move.

Travel between Pamplona and the closest cities or villages is difficult if you have to rely on public transportation. The earliest buses from San Sebastian-Donostia, the closest major city, do not arrive in the Pamplona until after the encierro, meaning that you would have to plan on arriving the night before and spend the night on the street or sleeping in the park if you want to be there in time for the running of the bulls.

If you were to drive, you would have to leave Donostia very early in the morning in order to be in Pamplona in time for that morning’s encierro. It’s only a one-hour drive but it may take you awhile to find a place to park, and nearly impossible on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, or on the 6th or 7th.

There is the possibility of arranging a private transfer or taxing a taxi from San Sebastian-Donostia, Bilbao or Logroño (La Rioja), but you will still need to be up very early in the morning in order to reach Pamplona in time for the encierro, and such a trip is expensive unless you are with a larger group. We do provide private transfers from the nearby villages where many of our country homes are located, but these need to be arranged in advance.

6 July - Corrida de rejones – bullfighting from horseback
• Bulls from the ranch, la ganadería, of D. FERMÍN BOHÓRQUEZ, de Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz)
• Los rejoneadores: JOAO SALGUEIRO, PABLO HERMOSO DE MENDOZA y SERGIO GALÁN

7 July - Primera Corrida de la “Feria del Toro – 1st bullfight
• Six bulls from the ranch of PEÑAJARA, de Fuente de Arco (Badajoz)
• Matadors: EL FUNDI, LUÍS BOLÍVAR y SALVADOR CORTÉS

8 July - Segunda Corrida de la “Feria del Toro – 2nd bullfight
• Six bulls from the ranch of HROS. de DON JOSÉ CEBADA GAGO, de Medina Sidonia (Cádiz)
• Matadors: ANTONIO BARRERA, FRANCISCO MARCO y SERGIO AGUILAR

9 July - Tercera Corrida de la “Feria del Toro - 3rd bullfight
• Six bulls from “EL VENTORRILLO”, de Los Yébenes (Toledo)
• Matadors: EL CID, SEBASTIÁN CASTELLA y JOSÉ MARÍA MANZANARES

10 July - Cuarta Corrida de la “Feria del Toro - 4th bullfight
• Six bulls from the JANDILLA ranch, de Mérida (Badajoz)
• Matadors: EL FANDI, MATÍAS TEJELA y RUBEN PINAR

11 July - Quinta Corrida de la “Feria del Toro - 5th bullfight
• Six bulls from DÑA. DOLORES AGUIRRE YBARRA, de Constantina (Sevilla)
• Matadors: SERAFÍN MARÍN, DAVID MORA y JOSELILLO

12 July - Sexta Corrida de la “Feria del Toro - 6th bullfight
• Six bulls from the MIURA ranch, de Lora del Rio (Sevilla)
• Matadors: JUAN JOSÉ PADILLA, RAFAELILLO y JESÚS MILLÁN

13 July - Séptima Corrida de la “Feria del Toro - 7th bullfight
• Six bulls from the ranch of FUENTE YMBRO, de San José del Valle (Cádiz)
• Matadors: ANTONIO FERRERA, MIGUEL ÁNGEL PERERA y DANIEL LUQUE

14 July - Octava y última Corrida de la “Feria del Toro - 8th and final bullfight of the fiesta
• Six bulls from NÚÑEZ DEL CUVILLO, de Vejer de la Frontera (Cádiz)
• Matadors: MORANTE DE LA PUEBLA, EL JULI y MIGUEL ÁNGEL PERERA

The newest member of the peña arrived on Monday 27 April, Olivia Marie Mosier. Congratulations to Richard and Marie, who met in Pamplona during Sanfermín 2003. While we lost a guide we gained a great family in exchange. Olivia Marie and family will be joining us for her first fiesta this July, but it may be a few years before she is ready to run with the bulls…


¡Viva San Fermin! Gora Sanfermín!

THE OPENING CEREMONY – 6 JULY
Join Peña Seattle in the Ayuntamiento at noon on July 6th for the opening ceremony of Los Sanfermines, and the “txupinazo” (Basque), the firing of the rockets announcing the start of Fiesta de San Fermín 2009. Enjoy this unique spectacle from the privileged vantage point of a private balcony overlooking the Town Hall Square as it begins to fill with thousands of celebrants, all dressed in white.

Our special opening ceremony program includes the services of a local guide who will explain the significance of the event, premium balcony reservations in the Town Hall Square, across from city hall, refreshments, including Cava (Spanish champagne), excellent Navarran wine, cold beer and soda and an assortment of fresh appetizers while we await the firing of the rockets, at noon, signaling the start of another great fiesta.

The “txupinazo” sets the mood for the next eight days and nights, 204 hours of the fiesta, as Pamplona celebrates its long and colorful history.


€375 EUR/person – (space is limited)

Celebration Lunch – 6 July – Join us for our special celebration lunch following the opening ceremony.

€95 EUR/person. This special celebration lunch is limited to a maximum of 20.

BALCONY PROGRAMS – 7 TO 14 JULY
Encierro, the “running of the bulls”

VIP Balcony Program - Program includes our special buffet breakfast at the Nuevo Casino in the Plaza del Castillo following the encierro. The VIP program is limited to a maximum of 35 people per day and is available to VIP hotel package clients only.
Additional VIP balcony reservations can be added for €135 EUR/person per day

Standard Balcony Program - Includes the balcony reservation and services of a guide for the encierro.
€95 EUR/person per day for our hotel package clients. Private transfer included.
€115 EUR/person per day for non-hotel clients. Private transfer, from selected hotels, can be added for €10 EUR/person.
Add breakfast at the Hotel Maisonnave to the Standard Balcony Program for €30 EUR/person.

Pobre de mi Balcony Program – 14 July (10:00 pm to 1:00 am)
€ 90 EUR/person Program is limited to a maximum of 20 people.

BULLFIGHT TICKETS – 6 TO 14 JULY
Bullfight tickets are available to our hotel clients only! Please contact us for price and availability

SPECIAL EXCURSIONS DURING THE FIESTA
City Tour - 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 13 July – A visit to the casco viejo, the Old City.
€35 EUR/person. Program is limited to a maximum of 20 people/day – advanced reservations required

Bodega Tour - A visit to the Bodega Otazu or the Señorio de Sarría, two of the premium wineries in Navarra. Tour is followed by a special lunch. Available 8 and 10 July – or by special arrangement.
€185 EUR/person. Program is limited to a maximum of 20 people/day – advanced reservations required.

ADDITIONAL TOURS
Tours are available before, during and following the fiesta (not available on 6, 7 or 12 July 2009)
• A day in Orreaga / Roncesvalles
• A visit to the Irati Forest
• A tour of the beautiful Baztan Valley
Please contact us regarding these special excursions, which are limited to a maximum of 20 people.

TRANSFERS AND GUIDE SERVICES
Transfers – Airport to Hotel
• Hondarribia (San Sebastián) – Barcelona – Biarritz – Bilbao – Madrid – Noain (Pamplona) – Please contact us regarding price and availability.

Guides in Pamplona during the Fiesta
• 4 hours - €400 EUR for up to 8 people
• 8 Hours - €600 EUR for up to 8 people
• €125 EUR for each additional hour

LANGUAGES
Our guides speak Spanish, French, English, Italian, German and Basque

Since 1591 the annual Fiesta of San Fermin has been all about running with the bulls but these days bulls and tourists alike need guides to navigate that “party on the run.”
Even hundreds of wannabe runners find themselves bumped off the route to the bullring before the starting rockets are fired because they fail to learn that police clear the same certain sections at the last minute each morning.

“The Sun Also Rises” elevated San Fermín’s encierro to an international hot spot but Ernest Hemingway himself advised 81 years ago to seek a spot to watch the run by 5:30 a.m. These days only laggards wait so long to begin getting into place.

“It’s bulls before breakfast every day,” said Philip Ross, who first ran here himself in 1972, joining Navy buddy Wayne Batchelor who was already a Pamplona veteran. They slept in parks then. Now Ross and his wife Rogene tailor pricey individualized packages for American clients and stay in fine hotels, thank you very much.

Each morning from July 7-14 Ross gets clients close enough to smell the tension if not the bulls, and to join the crowd at 7:57 a.m. in singing the emotional prayer to Saint Fermin for protection. At 8 a.m. a final rocket launches the half-mile dash to Plaza de Toros where the bulls will fight to certain death in the afternoon.

This daily street theater is the centerpiece of the fiesta even though the runs that have become such tourist-magnets last an average of just under four minutes, a bit longer when bulls lose their way and spread havoc.

Whether visitors run or watch, San Fermin is not for those who are faint of heart or faint of wallet. Perhaps a million people in all during fiesta time – all clad in white with red scarves and sashes -- watch daring young men and women dodge the horns and thrashing hooves of 1300-pound fighting bulls, and relive traditions honoring the saint who is said to have been tied to a bull and dragged to a martyr’s death in A.D. 303.

Bulls in Pamplona always have had shepherds -- and a few tame steers -- to help them follow their one-way road to the bullring. Now humans need shepherds as well, and they find them via the Internet. One such pastore is Philip Ross whose Iberian Traveler firm is based in Seattle, WA and Springfield, Mo. (www.iberiantraveler.com). Ross counts about 25 percent of his clients from Florida, including former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack III whom Spanish reporters made a star during the 2006 party. Ross’s 68 package-clients this year were mostly repeat guests including my wife Mary and I and Wayne and Barbara Batchelor. “When I was young enough to run, they didn’t allow women,” said Barbara Batchelor, who met Wayne here 35 years ago at the famed El Txoko [cq] Bar. Romance must be in the air here. In 2000 Phil Ross met Rogene Laserna on the way home from Pamplona; they married in the Basque country this June.

Why are so many so eager to risk all? “The frontal lobe hadn’t quite developed,” Barbara Batchelor scoffed. Wayne said, “It was just the thing to do. It’s sort of exciting to get caught up in the idea of getting killed or gored, which you didn’t, of course.”

Not often. Bulls killed 14 runners since the city began counting in 1924. Other runners agree that remaining unscathed after bulls storm past is a rush that heightens feelings of being alive. Papa Hemingway first encountered Pamplona in 1923 when it had but 30,000 residents. Although he visited eight more times, he could not have expected the 21st Century scene his legendary tale produces. Now swarms of fiesta-goers willing to sleep in faraway hotels or city parks -- if they sleep at all – swell a modern city that itself is seven times larger than Hemingway knew. “To me it’s the most orderly mass of drunks I’ve ever encountered,” Mrs. Batchelor said.

San Fermin is far more than “the running of the bulls.” Religious and cultural traditions date to the 1196 observance marking the return of Fermin’s remains to his native Pamplona some 900 years after martyrdom in France.

The opening day procession of religious and political figures with a large statue of the saint through downtown follows the Chupinazo ceremony in town hall square. There are daily “Gigante” parades of dancers wearing huge colorful papier-mâché costumed heads, professional concerts staged in Plaza del Castillo, all-night drinking parties, and endless gatherings of street bands or marching peñas that are matador fan clubs on their way to or from the bullring. Amateur bullfights follow the run and cheap daytime shows at the bullring also are open.

As tough as Pamplona is for the bulls, it’s not always a lark for people either and Red Cross ambulances stand by most of the barrier’s 40 gates. Several hundred persons are treated each year at the runs, 3 percent of them grievously injured, city officials say. The city’s fatality list was begun only with the 1924 death of Esteban Domeno, 22, from nearby Sanguesa, whose death Hemingway chronicled in “The Sun Also Rises.” The novel quotes a waiter at Iruna Cafe commenting: “Muerto! Dead! With a horn through him. All for morning fun.” The last runner to die was a namesake of the saint, Pamplona resident Fermin Etxeberri, 63, killed in 2003. Twelve years have passed since a fatal goring [note: American Matthew P. Tasio, 22] but this year came close when a vengeful bull named Universal wrote himself into San Fermin’s history book on July 12 by goring seven persons. Universal punctuated that feat by spearing two Ohio brothers simultaneously. The reluctant bull met his own end 11 hours later at the hands of matador Alejandro Taravante, but he dominated that fight as well, knocking a picador and his horse flat to the ground, and heaping public scorn on a bullfighter who in April was carried on the crowd’s shoulders from the Seville bullring. “It could have been an important bull,” the Spanish newspaper “ABC” said in an article deriding the moment of truth.

But it is the morning ritual run, not the afternoon bullfight, that remains the hallmark of an event whose current form is little changed since 1591 when Pamplona shifted the saint’s day and bullfight festival from October to July for better weather.

Barriers first defined the encierro route in 1776, and were doubled after runaway bulls panicked the crowd in 1939. In 1856 the encierro route was realigned to where it is today, when about half its length was moved to the narrow and gritty Estafeta Street. In 1867, city officials despaired of banning the increasingly dangerous festival and chose instead to regulate it. They do that with a zeal that leads nearly all Pamplona residents not directly involved to take vacation. City workers constantly clean parks and streets around the clock to keep bottles and other debris from underfoot, or under sleeping bag. Police do much the same for those who revel too long. Squads of police reinforced from all of Spain are largely tolerant, but insure that runners are sober, over 18, and not carrying items that endanger others. This year a local man was fined and lost visitation rights for taking his 10-year-old son to run before the horns. Taunting or touching a bull during the run also is a no-no that will earn a wrongdoer vigorous smacks from a shepherd’s cane. Advance arrangements by brokers well-connected with local tourism companies assure that those who come so far to see will not be shut out of the action. They deliver hotel rooms, transportation, bullring tickets, balcony vantage 10 feet above the drama, plus wine and food excursions through Basque country during or after fiesta.

Mikel Ollo and Nieves Mantero, partners in Ross’s local link at Erreka Tourist Services, say their firm handles some business from other brokers and travel agents. “They come and go. They are not so special. Phil is special. He is very attentive,” Ollo told us. The relationship is so close that when Phil and Rogene married June 30 in a medieval church here Ollo was best man and Mantero was maid of honor. Ross truly is “attentive,” even offering free advice to non-customers who contact his website or catch up to him in Pamplona.

“They’ll come back to me, as others have, when it’s time to become a client,” says Ross who marks his real success from 2002, after partnering with Rogene.

The competition for accommodations is easy to grasp: 200,000 visitors a day for eight days make 2,200 hotel rooms virtually unattainable. Some visitors become day-trippers from Basque-region paradores, or cities like Lagrono, 61 miles by country road, and Biarritz, France, 82 highway miles. Some tour-packagers bus the revelers in and out of the city from hotels in the Pyrenees foothills 50 miles away. Iberian Traveler charged about $4,500 this year for a typical four-night package for two including “standard” hotels within walking distance, encierro balcony, local guides and necessary hand-holding, plus that breakfast with the typical deep-fried churros and hot chocolate after bulls do their thing.

Perhaps Ross’s most memorable service was arranging delightfully casual lunches that require a full afternoon in restaurants where reservations are virtually impossible without local help. Dinner after the bullfight is easier because Spaniards dine towards midnight, often too late for jet-lagged visitors. International travel is arranged independently, generally by flight to Pamplona via Madrid or Barcelona, or by train from Madrid or Paris. Bullfight tickets average $450 per seat per day. The Plaza de Toros, with Hemingway’s bust out front, seats 19,529 for each of eight corridas. Virtually every seat has been subscribed for years by local residents who pay an average $100 per seat and resell through cartels or syndicates that up the toll four or five times as much – “my ticket Mafia,” Ross calls it. Prices are particularly high on the shady side. The 1844-vintage bullring is owned by the “Casa de Misericordia” (House of Mercy) which says it devotes it profits from subscribers to provide housing for the elderly. PETA, the animal rights group, repeatedly calls on the House of Mercy often to “extend its mercy to all beings” and stop bullfights. On July 5 this year some 1,500 scantily-clad PETA demonstrators drew crowds with their “Running of the Nudes” to publicize its opposition.

By October Iberian Traveler already is selling packages for next year. “We always sell out everything for July 7th and 8th, usually by the middle of March, and decided two years ago to set aside balconies on these dates solely for our hotel-package clients,” Ross said. This year he filled 40 waiting-list orders for leftover balcony spots and bullfight tickets but, from now on, tickets are available only to those who purchase hotel packages. “Everyone else can deal with the scalpers, or their own hotel,” he says.

PDF Version
http://www.prlog.org/10186010-pamplona-and-the-fiesta-de-san-fermn-by-frank-murray.pdf

Check the exclusive hotel packages we are offering for Sanfermín 2009, including the special VIP family package. This package is perfect for a family traveling with a small child, 12 or younger.


Hotel Packages for Sanfermín 2009

We had an unexpected visit by Testes the bull during breakfast in the Nuevo Casino following the morning's encierro. The Kukuxumusu mascot, a new addition to the fiesta this year, was a big hit with the children, and eveyone else.



The Nuevo Casino, a private social club located in the Plaza del Castillo, above the historic Café Iruña, is the central gathering place each morning following the encierro for members and invited guests.

This year's encierros had the third fastest average time on record, with the fastest encierro timed at 2:22 on 8 July with the Cebada Gago bulls, lead by a couple of very fast steers, the first of which entered the bullring in 1:57, a few steps ahead of the fastest bull. The average speed for this run was 21,44 km/h, which left many of the regular runners in the dust. One of the fastest encierros was in 1984, when the last bull entered the bullring in 2:10.

This year's encierros also had the least number of horn wounds (4) and was one of the safest since 1998, due primarily to the anti-slip surfacing on "La Curva", the entrance to C/ Estafeta. The number of runners on the first day, the 7th, was down somewhat due to the additional police working the route, but there were still an estimated 3500 runners crowded into the town hall square and down Santo Domingo.

There were a total of 263 people treated for injuries along the route and only 42 transported to the hospital for treatment. Most of the major injuries, outside of the four horn wounds, were attributed to "crushing injuries" caused by the bulls, steers and other runners.

There are six fighting bulls and six steers, all of which are released at the same time and in theory complete the course together. There are also three rather large Oxen (up to 1000 kilo) used to bring in any stay bull that may remain on the course, which can be very dangerous for runners who do not count the bulls as they pass.

Few bulls obtain 1500 lbs in weight (682 kilos), but there are some bulls of the Muria breed, Spain’s largest fighting bulls, that have approached that mass. The most aggressive and often most dangerous animals are closer to 1100 lbs and can react in an instant when necessary.

The average time for the course is just over 3 minutes, with the quickest bull covering the route in 1:59 a couple of years ago, goring three runners along the way, the last one in the bullring. The final bull to enter the bullring that day trailed the leader by nearly one full minute, which is a long time when you don't know where that final animal is.

There is frequently more danger the novice runners, some sober, some not, then from the fighting bulls, but a bull can and will kill if you happen to draw his attention, something the experience runners tries to avoid as he runs with the bulls.

Please note that the fighting bull is not bred to kill but bred for its natural aggressiveness. It can and will kill any animal it faces, man being the lone exception, most of the time.

The first encierro, the running of the bulls, begins at 8:00, the morning of the 7th. You can expect the crowd to number close to 4000 on the first day, 95% of which have no idea of what they are doing out there. The police try to control the situation, removing those too drunk to stand, but it’s generally the first timers, the novices, who make a mistake, causing someone else to be injured, sometimes seriously.

It’s not an overly dangerous sport, but it is the only one in which the other side (the fighting bulls) have all of the advantages. You’re there simply for the adrenalin rush and it’s like nothing else if done properly.
encierro

Some sol seat tickets will be available each day of the fiesta, but you will more than likely have to purchase them through the scalpers, mostly Gypsies that work the area in front of the bullring beginning at around 10:00 am each morning. Expect to pay anywhere from 30 to 200 EUR per ticket depending on the day and the cartel. Tickets on the 7th, the first day of the traditional bullfights, are always difficult to obtain. One thing to remember, since scalping is illegal in Spain, there may be some undercover police in the crowd. If so, then the scalpers will not be selling tickets that day. They know the police and the police know them. It's a game they play throughout Spain during the major bullfighting ferias.

You can order tickets through us, but expect to pay at least 200 Euros for the Andanada sombra (upper level shade) seats and more than 300 Euros for the prime tendido sombra (lower level shade) seats.

Remember, it’s feria and it's like going to the NBA or NFL playoffs. These tickets are never available to the general public, but have to be negotiated by our buyer once our order is placed.





The premium tendido sombra tickets were going for 5x's face value for this year's Feria.

By comparison, tickets to see José Tomas, considered by some to be the superstar of matadors, where selling for €1000 each on the internet.