Last week we were at the Montreux Jazz Festival and this week I invite you to visit Pamplona in Spain with me. From the 6th to the 14th of July, Spain celebrates the Fiestas of San Fermin, in honour of their patron saint of Navarra. Internationally, it is known as the "running of the bulls." The bulls are chased through the streets of the old quarter all the way to the bull ring. People come from all corners of the world to party, have fun, and experience the excitement of playing with danger.
More importantly for us hoteliers, they also fill every bed in the region of Navarra, a welcome time for the hotel and restaurant owners of the northern Spanish area. As I mentioned last week, such events are crucial cornerstones for our industry and often the result of positive cooperation between local authorities and the private industry.
During the next few summer months, hundreds of such events will be held in hundreds of cities, keeping our industry busy and the economy healthy. In Pamplona, huge crowds of thrill-seekers got a scare last Sunday as they fled the six large bulls and six steers charging through the streets in the opening run.
Hundreds of people ran with the bulls; many people dared to touch the beasts on their sides or even run just a few steps in front of the bulls' horns as thousands of spectators looked on from the sides or from overhanging balconies. One lone black bull gave runners a fright when the animal hung back and stopped just before the bull ring, its way forward blocked by people. The bull turned around to face a dense crowd that had built up behind it, sending panicky runners scrambling over wooden fence barriers for safety. It was a picture seen on TV and news papers around the world; great marketing for next year’s event!
A medical report from the regional medical authorities showed four people taken to hospital with light injuries: a 24-year-old Australian, a 44-year-old Briton, a 26-year-old American and a 36-year-old resident of Pamplona. Last year 38 people were taken to hospital at the festival's eight bull runs, including four men who were gored by bulls. Several hundred more were treated for minor injuries at the scene.
Most of the injuries are not caused by bull horns but by runners falling or getting knocked over or trampled by the animals. Fifteen people have been killed in the bull runs since records started in 1911. The festival was made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises" and by the many colourful and largely exaggerated stories circulated not only by the "runners" but also by the thousands of onlookers. Here is one such story:
On the way back to the hotel, one of the spectators got lost in the small alleys of Pamplona and came across a little local restaurant. He went in to get direction and he noticed two men eating a very delicious looking dish, a dish he had never seen in his extensive travels through Spain. He asked what the men were eating with such great delight.
‘They are eating the testicles from a bull killed today in the fiesta — it is a speciality and only a few restaurants get them from the butcher.’
‘Wow, can I try one too?’ he asked. ‘Unfortunately we have sold the two we had for today but you can order for tomorrow.’
The next day he went back and was excited to try a speciality none of his friends had ever heard of and he looked forward to telling this story from his trip to Spain. But when the waiter served his plate there was only a bit of gravy and two hazelnut size balls on his plate.
‘That is not what you served yesterday,’ he complained.
‘That is true, but it is not always the bull that gets killed!’
Watch what you eat this weekend!
Bon appetite
FG
