After two years without San Fermín Festival, Pamplona is collecting ideas on how to go on

For most tourists, the festivities are known thanks to the Running of the Bulls

Pamplona City Council has opened a suggestions email box where citizens and associations can present their ideas and proposals for the future organization of the San Fermín Festival. This very vibrant and internationally known event in the Spanish city that attracts throngs of tourists every July has had to be cancelled for the past two summers due to the coronavirus pandemic. Given its importance for the local economy, culture and identity, the authorities want to see it revived next year, though the form remains unclear for the moment.

The Pamplona government has decided to keep the email box open for proposals and ideas until 30 November. At the start of this past weekend, almost 100 such proposals had already been received there.

San Fermín Festival was popularized by Hemingway

Proposals sent via email must specify personal data such as name, surnames and the ID of the person who is writing. The latter also indicated that ideas are preferably welcomed from city residents. Likewise, it is requested that the entity or association the person represents be mentioned, if applicable.

The proposed contributions can deal with all kinds of aspects related to the San Fermin, from the way in which the festivities are developed, the municipal programming or the offer of more general activities, to issues such as the image that is projected outside the city or the experience and participation of the people and groups that attend them.

Once the deadline for submitting proposals is over, the latter will be transferred to the General Board of San Fermin Festival and to its specific sub-boards to assess and debate their possible inclusion in the next edition.

The San Fermin Festival is known all over the world thanks to the Running of the Bulls event and the red and white costumes that attendees wear. The festival itself, however, is much more than the spectacle of risking your health and life by running in the narrow streets of Pamplona in front of the charging bulls.

It also includes religious processions, fireworks, cultural activities and tasting the local cuisine and wine, and goes on for a full week. Its essence and connection to local identity has been described numerous times by Ernest Hemingway in his book The Sun Also Rises and in articles that he wrote as a reporter.