Fiestas en España By Georgia Metcalfe
San Fermin San Fermin The fiestas of San Fermin are celebrated every year from the 6th to the 14th of July. Thousands of people congregate in the square awaiting the mayor’s official announcement that the fiestas have begun, a rocket is launched and the partying begins. The festival of San Fermin mixes a variety of contrasts: official and popular culture, religion and profanity, new and old, and order and chaos.
The Bull Run The Pamplona bull run takes place at 8am every morning from 7th to 14th July. Runners must be in the running area by 7.30am. The length of the run is 825 metres and the average time of the run from start to finish is about three minutes. The streets through the old town which make up the bull run are walled off so the bulls can’t escape. Each day six fighting bulls run the route as well as two herds of bullocks.
La Tomatina La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year. It is held in the town of Bunol near to Valencia in Spain. Anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 people make their way from all over the world to attend the 'World's Biggest Food Fight' where more than one hundred tons of over- ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
What Happens at La Tomatina The week-long festival features music, parades, dancing, and fireworks. At around 11 am, the first event of the Tomatina begins. The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing of water cannons. Although it is forbidden to tear someone else's clothing, the crowd tends to ignore this and invariably will rip the shirt of any clothed person, man or woman.