Red scarves raised during the chupinazo this Tuesday in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Pamplona.Pablo Lasaosa
More than a thousand days passed and San Fermín returned.
They said that there was desire and, apparently, it was true.
Juan Carlos Unzué lit the fuse and the roar of a crowd eager to party was added to the roar of the chupinazo.
Let's understand each other: the word "party" is not enough to define this week of euphoria in which the heart, stomach and liver, as well as other organs, dilate due to the effect of adrenaline.
There were two years of suspension due to the pandemic, which is still there, and six years since, in the early hours of July 7, 2016, five men raped a woman in a central Pamplona portal.
The case of that group of aggressors, who called themselves the Pack, cast a shadow over the Sanfermines.
The City Council and other institutions try to ensure that the debauchery typical of the occasion has a limit, only one: violence, whether physical or verbal.
It is hoped that, where the good judgment of the participants does not arrive, the police presence and surveillance cameras do.
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The Sanfermines return after a two-year hiatus, with a chupinazo dedicated to health workers and ALS patients
Everything is excessive.
A city of 200,000 inhabitants can accommodate a million people willing to do anything, except circumspection.
San Fermín, a French saint who perhaps did not even exist, which is unimportant because here the martyrs paint little, attracts people from the most remote places.
Like seven big boys from Florida, six of whom are setting foot on European soil for the first time, who leave the hotel first thing in the morning strictly in white uniform until they debut, with very little skill, the newly purchased wineskin.
They know about Ernest Hemingway, of course, and they want to run before the bulls, and drink like Cossacks, and maybe get hooked forever in the rites of the party.
San Fermín would not be the same without the enthusiasm of the foreigners.
At the moment, while traveling by bus to the center of Pamplona, they speculate on the effect that the rain will have on the women's white clothing.
They are not wrong.
transparent clothing.
Which leads to comments of questionable taste on the part of the American group, which has needed little more than half an hour and a significant number of liters of sangria to become inflamed beyond what is sensible.
Water falls from the sky, and wine from everywhere, and the crowd roars, laughs and sings, and it's easy to confuse the desire for revelry with the desire for something else.
A group of very young girls, from Zaragoza, dances in Estafeta street while waiting for the chupinazo.
He hasn't given them temperance either.
If they are asked if they feel any resentment, if they are concerned about the history of abuse and sexual assault, they shout back: "Dare!".
You have to trust that they don't, that they don't dare.
Shortly before 12:00, the Plaza del Ayuntamiento is crowded and you can hardly move through the nearby streets.
The environmental exaltation is so high that the bachelor party of some Catalan boys, recently arrived in Pamplona with the desire to blow everything up, draws attention for its sobriety.
As in any massive event, a part of the San Fermín festivities can only be appreciated well on the screen.
Former soccer player Juan Carlos Unzué, sick with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), undoubtedly moved many viewers when, before lighting the fuse of the chupinazo, he dedicated these Sanfermines to health personnel and those who suffer from the same disease.
At the foot of the square he could hardly be seen or heard.
Between the noise, the proud display of red scarves, the shouts in favor of San Fermín ―not so much the saint as the party―, the general sprinkling of liquids such as calimocho or sangria and the hugs to locals and strangers, it was necessary to settle hearing the firecracker.
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Photo gallery |
The best images of the chupinazo
The visitors have made San Fermín an almost worldwide phenomenon.
It is the people of Pamplona, however, who maintain the exaggerated and at the same time good-natured spirit of this extraordinary week.
It is they, the neighbors themselves, who have been experiencing the phenomenon for decades, who know best how to meet again, dance, drink and give hugs.
Or on the contrary, those who most skillfully slip away, like furtive shadows, towards their hiding places.
"I have never put up with this barbarity," says a man with a white mustache, loaded with loaves of bread and willing to shut himself up at home "until July 15, if necessary."
There is everything.
In the famous Iruña café, an institution in Plaza del Castillo, the waiters can't keep up.
When one of them is asked how many hours he will have to work, he answers “all”.
But he doesn't say it often.
Between one syllable and another he gives her time to pour a beer.
The hotels are almost full, and by the weekend there will not be a single free bed, not even in the elegant La Perla hotel, which is often associated with Hemingway, perhaps because Hemingway never stayed there, neither in the most backpacker hostel, nor in suburban accommodation.
It is the eve of the first bull run.
As every year bullfighting and anti-bullfighting will cross arguments, there will be those who see cruelty and those who see healthy fun in the races of cattle and waiters.
Actually, there is not much to discuss these days: San Fermín is what it is and it is celebrated without limits, except, hopefully, that of violence, sexual or otherwise.
Simply because, after two years of suspension due to the pandemic, it can be done.
And maybe even it should.
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The chupinazo of Sanfermin 2022
Hundreds of people witness the San Fermin 2022 chupinazo in Pamplona. Photo: REUTERS/Vincent West |
Video: EPV