Seeing Red in Pamplona

The festival of San Fermin.
The running of the bulls

From July 7 to 14th, the Spanish city of Pamplona is a week-long street party.

With twelve rowdy guests with sharp horns on their heads, this is the kind of party which will end in injury for many. Death even, for some.

Yet this danger seems to be an added draw for some of the revellers. Many of whom come from across the globe to run with the bulls of Pamplona.

There is of course a dress code.

During this festival People wear white clothes and red bandanas.
Though the red is not to provoke the bulls.
As it turns out, bulls are colour blind.

Instead this colour represents the blood of Saint Fermin, martyred behind a stampede of cattle.

Not that many people care to stop and contemplte the saint, with a herd and of 48 hooves behind them .

The Encierro [En-thi-er-oh] as its known attracts up to a million spectators during July .

It's almost impossible to tell the number of runners, as no one is keeping count.

There is no official registry.

But since 2011 there has been a loose headcount of participants conducted by Pamplona Town Council.

There have also been a number of Kiwis caught between horns.

In response, the New Zealand embassy in Spain has warned Kiwis "not to run but rather to watch and enjoy the festivities.

"Running with the bulls is dangerous. The run takes place in a narrow, crowded alley in which there are two particularly dangerous sections where a number of deaths have occurred."

Watch Evan Thomas run the course, below

• In 2008 - New Zealander Mike Loomey was seriously injured by a bull.
• In 2010 - an Aucklander was trampled.

Away from the festive madness on the cobbled streets, perhaps the best insight into the event is found in the local hospital.

The Pamplona Town Council and Hospital de Navarra en Pamplona have managed to keep specific records of runners treated for injuries going back 40 years.

Looking at the injuries there's no sign that the festival is getting safer.

Kiwis and Australians account for a disproportionate number of runners.

Compared to other nationalities attending, guests from the Antipodes make up about 10% of the attendees.

They also make up roughly one in ten of the events Gorings or injuries “Cornadas”

However, they don’t seem to be the most injury-prone guests.

That honour goes to the Brits.

For though they make up a small proportion of visitors they have a gorings to attendance ratio of almost 2:1.

Injuries are common, deaths are rare.

15 people have died from their injuries in the past 110 years.

The last death was in 2009, when Daniel Jimeno Romero, 27, from south of Madrid was gored to death.

The bulls however, are all for the knackers.

The bulls meet their death in bullfights at the conclusion of the festival

As Hemmingway put it the bulls are “run through the streets at seven o'clock in the morning of the day they are to be fought” before facing certain “death in the afternoon.”