Revellers soaked in wine as party marks start of Pamplona bull runs

Thousands of revelers doused each other with wine on Monday to celebrate the start of the famed San Fermin running of the bulls festival. The festival started with the traditional launching of a fireworks rocket — known as the Chupinaz — from the town hall balcony. The heaving crowd packed the Pamplona square down below, jumping and screaming “Viva San Fermin!” Most in the crowd waved red neckerchiefs, which along with white shirts and trousers, form the traditional festival clothing.

Pamplona’s streets are stained with bulls’ blood

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

The Chupinazo takes place a day before the first of eight 8am bull runs in this northern Spanish city. Thousands of people at the festival test their speed and bravery by racing ahead of six fighting bulls along a 930-yard (850-meter) course from a holding pen to the city’s bull ring. The bulls are then killed by professional matadors in bullfights each afternoon. The nine-day, street-partying fiesta was immortalized in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises and attracts thousands of foreign tourists. Earlier, more than 100 semi-naked activists covered in blood red paint have launched a protest outside the entrance to the Pamplona bull ring.