Deserted Streets Of Pamplona As San Fermin Cancelled

Pamplona city council have cancelled the San Fermin celebrations due to the Covid-19 restrictions and released this clip showing the deserted streets of Pamplona without the world famous Encierro (Running of the Bulls) that every year draw hundreds of thousands of spectators and participants.

The world-famous festival celebrates the city´s patron Saint San Fermin whose saint´s day is the 7th July and whose festival runs in the Navarran city between 6th and 14th July.

To mark this year’s cancelled festival, the city council has shared footage of the empty streets and bull ring.

The video uses the sounds and commentary broadcast on Spanish TV from last year’s festival while showing images of the deserted ‘running of the bulls’ route amid the pandemic.

The traditional ‘txupinazo’ firecracker that starts the festival was replaced with a giant red handkerchief draped from the City Hall’s balcony this year.

The city council, however, said it will not be stopped in the long run and vowed: “We will celebrate in 2021.”

The last time the San Fermin Festival, held in the city of Pamplona in the northern Spanish province of Navarre, was cancelled was in 1997 following the kidnapping and murder of the councillor Miguel Angel Blanco by the separatist group ETA.

The festival was previously cancelled in 1937 and 1938 during the Spanish Civil War and again in 1978 after a student was shot during clashes between police and protesters calling for an independent Basque region.

Bad weather conditions forced the festival’s cancellation in 1999 and heavy rain led to the bullfighting event being halted in 2019.

This year’s San Fermin Festival has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.