Its a tradition at the fiesta del Pilar in Zaragoza that the local youths stay up all night partaking in drunken revelry and then at dawn they head down to the bullfight arena. The bravest, most foolhardy and most inebriated among them get into the ring to face a series of wild bulls unleshed into the arena. These are young bulls, 'vaquillas', about 2 years old, weighing around 250 kg (considerably smaller than the fighting bulls used in the bullfight proper). Yet they are truly wild and of the same stock as the legendary 'toro bravo'. The youths take turns tempting the bull and then doing their best to stay alive once the chase is on.
We saw some daring manoeuvers with some of them somersaulting over the bull, and others using their clothing as improvised capes.
Some of the less competent were butted and trampled, and I saw one seriously wounded.
The crowd really is on the side of the bulls and shout angrily if anyone does anything cruel or deemed unfair. The bulls are not killed in the arena, and its all quite amusing!
This is all part of the coming of age of the Spanish male! When I was this age I used to drive fast in my father's car late at night, but this was evidently not sufficient for these teenagers!
Thanks Thilo! Although I am months behind in processing my shots. This was from October! It was very amusing. Generally the kids that enter the arena know what they are doing as they grew up on farms, but occasionally one is too drunk or too brave and they get clobbered. But nobody got killed, probably one ended up in hospital, the rest walked away and actually came back into the arena after a few minutes... Omar
good to see that you're so productive at the moment. this capture the movement and the dynamics of this scene very well. Hopefully, this is really amusing and not dangerous ;-)
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