Festival of San Fermín

The festival of San Fermín is a week-long, historically rooted celebration held annually in the city of Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. The celebrations start at noon on 6 July and continue until midnight on 14 July. A firework (Chupinazo) starts off the celebrations and the popular song Pobre de mí is sung at the end. The most famous event is the running of the bulls, which begins at 8 a.m. each day on 7–14 July, but the festival involves many other traditional and folkloric events. It is known locally as Sanfermines in Spanish and Sanferminak in Basque, and is held in honour of Saint Fermin, the co-patron of Navarre.

Its events were central to the plot of The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, which brought it to the general attention of the English-speaking world. It has become probably the most internationally renowned festival in Spain with over a million people coming to participate.