Day Six of the Pamplona Bull Run

PAMPLONA – ENTERTAINMENT – Every July, as a part of the Festival in Pamplona Spain, there is the Running of the Bulls. The Encierro is the event at the heart of the Sanfermines and makes the fiesta a spectacle that would be unimaginable in any other place in the world. It was born from need: getting the bulls from outside the city into the bullring.

The Encierro takes place from July 7th to 14th and starts at the corral in Calle Santo Domingo when the clock on the church of San Cernin strikes eight o”clock in the morning.

After the launching of two rockets, the bulls charge behind the runners for 825 metres, the distance between the corral and the bullring. The run usually lasts between three and four minutes although it has sometimes taken over ten minutes, especially if one of the bulls has been isolated from his companions.

The bulls are released for day six of the Pamplona bull run in Spain.

The week-long San Fermin festival has become a global tourist attraction, with hundreds pouring into the small town every July.

Jake Ramirez is from Los Angeles.

A runner from Los Angeles, Jake Ramirez states, “The sensation is great. I first came here back in ’97 and I never thought I’d come back. So being that it’s now 17 years later, it really explains the joy and the passion I have for the encierro [running of the bulls] in San Fermin.”

Some participants drink all night before the early morning run.

Roberto Lombardo from Philadelphia says it’s an adrenaline rush knowing you’re about to risk your life. “It’s very tough in there, it’s not easy, you have to make your own way, so to speak.”

Over the past century, there have been 14 fatalities at the fiesta.

FILES: DAILY MOTION / REUTERS