Thousands Cheer Beginning of Running of Bulls

Thousands cheered as Pamplona’s mayor fired a rocket at midday Saturday to kick off the weeklong running of the bulls fiesta made famous by Ernest Hemingway.

The traditional chupinazo rocket shot up from the town hall balcony overlooking the main square of this northern city, whose usual 200,000 population was expected to double for the fiesta.

Mayor Alfredo Jaime, in the traditional white outfit dashed with red bandanna and sash, shouted “Viva San Fermin!” in honor of the city’s patron saint and the festival’s namesake.

Hemingway used the annual San Fermin festival as a setting for his 1926 novel, “The Sun Also Rises.”

Since 1591, bulls have gored 52 people to death. Eleven runners have died since 1924, when Hemingway saw his first run, according to official records.

The fiesta revolves around the daily morning run of six bulls from a pen through the cobbled streets to the city bullring, when hundreds of people, mainly young men, test their mettle by running ahead of the bulls.