Thousands of revellers have packed the streets of Pamplona as the world-famous San Fermín Festival officially got under way, marking the start of nine days of celebrations that culminate in the iconic running of the bulls.
More than 12,000 people gathered in the city's main square on Monday (6 July) for the traditional Chupinazo ceremony, where a rocket fired from the town hall balcony signalled the start of the festival.
Dressed in white with red scarves, crowds sang, danced and sprayed each other with wine and grape juice.
The first running of the bulls will take place on Tuesday morning, with the event held daily until 14 July.
Each day at 8 a.m., six fighting bulls weighing around 600 kilograms race along an 848-metre course through Pamplona's Old Town to the bullring, chased by hundreds of runners.
The event remains one of the festival's biggest attractions but is also its most dangerous. Dozens of participants are injured every year, while 16 people have died during the runs since official records began in 1924.
Many of the same bulls later take part in evening bullfights.
Dating back to the late 16th century, the San Fermín Festival honours Pamplona's patron saint, Saint Fermín, and attracts more than one million visitors from around the world each year.
Beyond the bull runs, the celebrations feature concerts, parades, traditional dances, religious ceremonies and round-the-clock street festivities.
The festival gained worldwide fame through Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, which turns 100 next year and introduced generations of international visitors to Pamplona's annual celebration.
As in previous years, animal rights activists staged demonstrations against the bull runs and bullfights, wearing mock bull horns and covering themselves in red paint to symbolise the animals' deaths.
Despite ongoing criticism from animal welfare groups, the San Fermín Festival remains one of Spain's best-known cultural events and one of Europe's largest annual festivals.
The C5+1 ministerial meeting in Samarkand has strengthened economic ties between the U.S. and Central Asia, with Uzbekistan securing 54 agreements ...
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said regional issues should be res...
Armenia could face soaring gas prices, a sharp drop in remittances and tighter restrictions on migrant workers if its membership of the Eurasian Ec...
U.S. President Donald Trump has criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for continuing to target Russia's energy infrastructure, while Russian strikes on Kyiv overnight killed at least one person and damaged a metro station.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in Norway for talks about the Russia-Ukraine war. He is expected to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who arrived in Oslo earlier. Witkoff will also meet European officials.
French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the violence, looting and vandalism that erupted during cost-of-living protests across France. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu held crisis talks on Monday, calling for partial curfews and raising the possibility of a state of emergency.
An oil tanker caught fire after striking a naval mine in the southern part of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said late Sunday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said regional issues should be resolved through diplomacy and blamed the United States for insecurity and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, speaking at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday.
A former gang leader was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on Tuesday for orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting death of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, capping the prosecution of a long-unsolved murder that shaped the golden age of rap music.
Here’s your AnewZ Daily Brief for 14 October 2026, featuring the top five culture and entertainment stories from around the world.
Two paintings by French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir worth millions of dollars have been recovered a month after they were stolen from a French Riviera museum. Four men have been charged in connection with the theft, while two other suspects have been released without charge.
Iran has unveiled the restored mausoleum of 13th-century mystic Shams Tabrizi in the northwestern city of Khoy, with plans for a cultural tourism route linking the site to the shrine of renowned Persian poet Rumi in Konya, Türkiye.
AnewZ has premiered its new documentary film Kontrapunkt in Berlin, exploring more than two centuries of shared German-Azerbaijani history and the legacy of German communities in Azerbaijan.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment