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SPANISH FESTIVALS

Three die during bull runs in Spain’s Valencia region

Three men including a French tourist have died this week after suffering severe injuries during the 'Bous al carrer' bull runs of eastern Spain, emergency services said on Wednesday.

Published: 21 July 2022 10:23 CEST
SPAIN-BULL-RUN-VALENCIA
Valencian authorities have announced three deaths in a 24-hour period, all men who were gored during different bull runs in the region. (Photo by German Garcia / AFP)

Two men, aged 50 and 46, died after being violently struck by bulls on Tuesday at a bull run held in the Meliana suburb of the eastern port city of Valencia, a local emergency services spokesman said.

A French tourist in his sixties who had been in intensive care since he was gored by a bull in the village of Pedreguer near Alicante on July 8th died on Monday, the spokesman added.

Bull running festivals, where groups of people run in front of one or more half-tonne fighting bulls, are a longstanding Spanish tradition with many towns holding such events each year.

The most famous is held in the northern city of Pamplona in July during San Fermín celebrations.

The week-long San Fermín festival sees hundreds of daredevils race every morning with six fighting bulls along an 850-metre (2,800-foot) course from a holding pen to Pamplona’s bullring.

Five people were gored at the festival this year which ended on July 14th.

Sixteen people have died at Pamplona’s bull runs since 1911.

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SPANISH TRADITIONS

IN IMAGES: The Spanish town that stages mock battles with eggs and flour

The eastern Spanish town of Ibi held its annual 'Els Enfarinats' festival on Wednesday, a colourful and messy fiesta which sees revellers launch eggs, flour and firecrackers at each other in a mock coup d'etat.

Published: 28 December 2022 17:04 CET
IN IMAGES: The Spanish town that stages mock battles with eggs and flour

Els Enfarinats, which means ‘The Floured Ones’ in Valencian, takes place every December 28th in the eastern town of Ibi in Alicante province.

The centuries-old festival coincides with El Día de los Inocentes, which marks the biblical Massacre of the Innocents by King Herod but in present-day Spain is the equivalent of April Fool’s Day.

READ MORE: How Spain turned a child massacre into its April Fool’s Day

Under the slogan of ‘New Justice’, a group of married men take siege of the Valencian town and impose a series of ridiculous laws on residents.

Those who don’t abide by the new laws set by the Enfarinats, the ‘Flour Police’, are given unofficial fines.

A battle of eggs, flour and firecrackers is then waged between the Enfarinats and La Oposició, another ‘army’ which tries to restore order in Ibi.

At the end of the day, all the money collected from the ‘fines’ is donated to charitable causes in the town.

The bizarre fiesta has been traced back to at least 1862 when the first such celebration was held in the town.

But it stopped when real fighting broke out across Spain during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 and wasn’t resumed until 1981, six years after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco.

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