Spain Vs Italy!

Not football/soccer, this time it is the battle of the Festivals.

We have been very busy this week going between Pamplona, Spain and Palermo, Italy. Where two of the best/most dangerous festivals are taking place.

Spain has The Festival of San Fermin, or the Pamplona Bull Run. Where locals and tourists run through the town trying to avoid the 6 fighting bulls and 2 herds of “normal” big f*****g bulls, yes the ones with the horns at the front.

Meanwhile Italy has there own version. Il Festival di esecuzione Polli or The Festival of Running Chickens

Terrified Runners, trying to escape a large cock/rooster

The Festival of Running Chickens takes place in Palermo, Sicily.

It started in 1860 by the Palermo Mayor, Antonio Soprano who luckily owned the largest chicken farm on Sicily.

The Festival lasts for 5 days and is an offering to Saint Pizzapie, the Sicilian patron Saint of food.

Some of this years running chickens.

Over the past 148 years some of the runners in The Festival of Running Chickens have been pecked and sometimes even bleed a bit.

In 1958 Jason McDick a British runner fell and broke his front tooth.

Star Chicken Lorenzo Training For 2008.

After the week of running the chickens are made into traditional food for the competitors.

Traditional Scicilian Chicken.

Now to Spain.

The festival of San Fermin, or the Pamplona bull running as it's more commonly known outside Spain officially begins at midday on 6th July every year with the 'chupinazo' which takes place on the balcony of the Casa Consistorial in Pamplona.

Thousands of people congregate in the square awaiting the mayor's official announcement that the fiestas have begun, a rocket is launched and the partying begins.

Pamplona Bull Run

The history of the bull running in Pamplona is not clear. There is evidence of the festival from as far back as the 13th century when it seems the events took place in October as this coincided with the festival of San Fermin on October 10th. It seems that the modern day celebration has evolved from this as well as individual commercial and bullfighting fiestas which can be traced back to the 14th century.

Over many years the mainly religious festival of San Fermin was diluted by music, dancing, bullfights and markets such that the Pamplona Council proposed that the whole event be moved to July 7th when the weather is far more conducive to such a celebration. To this day San Fermin remains a fixed date every year with the first bull run at 8am on July 7th and the last at the same time on July 14th.

The Bull Run The Pamplona Bull Run takes place at 8am every morning from 7th to 14th July. Runners must be in the running area by 7.30am. The actual run stretches from the corral at Santo Domingo where the bulls are kept, to the bullring where they will fight that same afternoon. The length of the run is 825 metres and the average time of the run from start to finish is about three minutes. The streets through the old town which make up the Bull Run are walled off so the bulls can't escape. Each day six fighting bulls run the route as well as two herds of bullocks.

We like about 1:30 of this video

The tension builds as the release of the bulls approaches and at 8am on the dot a rocket is fired to confirm that the gate has been opened at the Santo Domingo corral. Runners dressed in white with a red handkerchief around their necks pray to San Fermin then a second rocket announces that the bulls have left. The bulls and the runners then proceed along the route.

Well in our opinion Spain wins.

Running away from chickens just doesn't reem as badass as running away from Bulls.

And for the record bull runners, running behind the bull does not count!

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