San Fermín San Fermín The festival of San Fermín is a week-long, historically rooted celebration held annually in the city of Pamplona, Navarra , Spain. The celebrations start at noon on the sixth of July, when the party starts with the setting off the pyrotechnic "chupinazo", and continue until midnight, on the fourteenth of July, with the singing of the "Pobre de Mí". While its most famous event is the encierro, or the running of the bulls, at 8:00 AM from July 7 to 14, the festival involves many other traditional and folkloric events. It is known locally as "Sanfermines" and is
San Fermín and a different "encaste" (sub-breed) of bull appears each day. The event begins at 8 a.m. when a first firecracker is lit to announce the release of the bulls from their corral. Before the year 1924 it started at 6 and at 7 between 1924 and 1974. Runners gather earlier at the beginning of the itinerary to ask for the protection of the Saint by singing a chant three times before a small statue of San Fermín which has been placed in a raised niche in a wall: “"To San Fermin we ask to be our patron saint and to