PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) – Thousands of people are singing and dancing in the streets of this northern Spanish city to celebrate the start of the Pamplona’s famed San Fermin running of the bulls festival.
The festival started Wednesday with the traditional midday launching of a firework rocket – known as the “Chupinazo”- from Pamplona’s town hall balcony.
Thousands of people jammed into the square down below, immediately began jumping and screaming “Viva San Fermin!”
The nine-day, street-partying fiesta was immortalized in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises” and attracts thousands of foreign tourists.
The “Chupinazo” takes place a day before the first of eight 8 a.m. bull runs, in which daredevils test their speed and bravery by racing with six fighting bulls along a 930-yard (850-meter) street course to the bull ring.