Pamplona's San Fermín festival concluded its eighth and final bull run on Tuesday, leaving a total of 57 participants injured over the course of the week-long event. The Navarre regional government reported that ten men were hurt in the final run, including an 18-year-old with a gore wound to the thigh and a 46-year-old gored in the chest. The remaining eight were treated for bruises of varying severity.
The bulls completed the 848.6-metre course from the holding pen to the city's bullring in two minutes and 25 seconds, a relatively swift pace that still resulted in significant injuries. Each morning for eight days, hundreds of runners—most of them men—dressed in traditional white shirts and red scarves, test their courage by sprinting ahead of a pack of fighting bulls through the narrow, winding streets of the medieval city.
International Participants Among the Injured
Five of the 57 injured are foreign nationals: two Britons, an Australian, an American, and a German who was gored in his left arm. The festival, immortalised by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, draws participants from around the world, many of whom travel specifically to take part in the runs. The presence of international runners underscores the global appeal of this centuries-old tradition, though it also highlights the risks involved.
Four men were gored during this year's runs, including a 30-year-old Spanish man who sustained a horn wound to the face. Since records began in 1911, sixteen people have died in the bull runs, with the most recent fatality occurring in 2009 when a bull gored a 27-year-old Spaniard in the neck, heart, and lungs.
The bulls themselves face almost certain death in the afternoon bullfights, which feature Spain's top matadors. This aspect of the festival has drawn criticism from animal rights groups, but remains a central part of the tradition for many locals and visitors.
While the runs are over, the festival's closing ceremony will take place at midnight, marking the end of another year's San Fermín. The event, which combines religious devotion, cultural celebration, and physical risk, continues to polarise opinion across Europe and beyond. For those who participate, the adrenaline and tradition outweigh the dangers; for critics, the cost in human and animal life is too high.
