PHOTOS | 2017 Running of the Bulls
A red-and-white sea of revelers soaked each other with wine in a packed Pamplona square to kick off Spain’s most famous fiesta, the San Fermin bull-running festival.
The festival, known locally as Sanfermines, commemorates the city’s patron saint. The annual Fiesta de San Fermin, made famous by the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel “The Sun Also Rises, involves the daily running of the bulls through the historic heart of Pamplona to the bull ring.
A Cebada Gago fighting bull charges past participants on the first day of the San Fermin bull-running festival in Pamplona, Spain.
A participant is tossed by a bull on the first day of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona.
People watch from their balconies while bulls chase runners or "mozos" during the first bull run of Sanfermines 2017 in Pamplona, Spain.
Bulls from the Cebada Gago ranch chase runners in the Mercaderes Curve in Pamplona, Spain.
Festival participants run ahead of bulls in Pamplona.
A runner falls under Cebada Gago's fighting bulls on the first bull run in Pamplona. Each day at 8 a.m. during the fiesta, hundreds of people race with six bulls that charge along a winding half-mile course through narrow streets to the city's bull ring.
Javier Munoz, 59, who has been running with the bulls for 42 years, pays his respects to Saint Fermin ahead of the year's first running of the bulls at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona.
A boy cries next to a member of the San Fermin Comparsa Parade during a religious procession at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain.
Participants hold aloft red scarves as they celebrate the "chupinazo" to kick off the San Fermin Festival in front of the Pamplona Town Hall in Spain.
The Pamplonesa municipal music band performs during the launch of the San Fermin Festival.
A reveler is thrown into the air as thousands of people pack the plaza at the town hall as the Festival of San Fermin begins in Pamplona, Spain.
Revelers enjoy the atmosphere during the opening day or "chupinazo" of the San Fermin running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, Spain.
A reveler jumps from a fountain on Navarreria Street as people enjoy the atmosphere during the opening day of the Fiesta San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain.
Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza stabs a bull during a bullfight on horseback at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, Spain.
Participants hold red scarves as they celebrate the kickoff of the San Fermin Festival, in front of the Town Hall of Pamplona.
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