Most people who know Pamplona for the running of the bulls believe San Fermín happens once a year, in July, and that outside the fiesta the city has little to show anyone. Both beliefs are wrong. Every September Pamplona holds a second festival for the same saint, held in the Old Town, and the San Fermín Txikito 2026 weekend ran from 25 to 27 September.
The mistake matters because it gives people the wrong picture of the city. Anyone who has only seen Pamplona during the July fiesta has seen it in its most crowded week, which is not how the people who live there know it, and not how it looks the rest of the year.
Encierro founder Dennis Clancey has run the encierro every encierro year since 2007, and he has spent time in Pamplona outside the fiesta for business meetings, language study and remote work. He does not run tours during Txikito and was not in the city this year, so the programme details below come from published local reporting, and everything in quotation marks is his own words. This article covers what the festival is, what the 2026 weekend contained, what the peñas do, what Pamplona is like outside Fiesta, and one night in March 2017 that he watched unfold on the street below his apartment.
The Feast Day Is Fixed. The Weekend Moves.
San Fermín Txikito, formally San Fermín de Aldapa, marks the saint’s feast day rather than the July fiesta. The date never changes, and the festival simply lands on whichever weekend is closest.
“The twenty-fifth of September is the traditional date of Saint Fermín’s martyrdom in Amiens, France, commonly dated around 303 AD. What is called San Fermín Chiquito is held on an adjacent weekend. This year, in 2026, it was held on the weekend of September 26th and 27th.”
The full festival opened a day earlier, on Friday 25 September, and the city’s own programme ran across Saturday 26 and Sunday 27. In its modern form the celebration owes its survival to the Navarrería neighborhood, which relaunched it in 1947 after it had declined and then lapsed for years. Local historians treat the legend that Fermín was born in Pamplona as legend, not record, but the feast day itself has been observed in the Old Town for generations.
Dennis puts the difference from July in one sentence:
“The festival is smaller, and is without all the tourists attracted in July.”
The Bulls Have Wheels: What Happened on Sunday, 27 September
The most common question about Txikito is whether there are bulls. There are not, apart from the ones built for children.
“There are no bulls during the Chiquito, except for fake ones that are wheeled through the street for the children. One was held at 8 p.m. on the 27th. There was also a Toro de Fuego, the famous fireball, on Calle Aldapa at 8:30.”
The toro de fuego is a frame of fireworks carried through the street by a person, a tradition Pamplona shares with July. The wheeled bull is a children’s encierro, in which bulls on wheels stand in for the real animals. Neither has anything to do with the animals that run in July.
The rest of the day followed the traditional order. Municipal txistularis and gaiteros played the dianas, the morning wake-up music, through the Old Town from 9:00. The Comparsa de Gigantes y Cabezudos set out at 11:00 from the Palacio de Ezpeleta. The Duguna dance group walked in from the Curtidores bridge in Rochapea at 11:30, after the traditional flag wave. At 12:15 the procession of San Fermín de Aldapa left the Corazonistas church, accompanied by La Pamplonesa, the Comparsa and the dancers, and looped through the Navarrería streets before returning. At 13:15 the ezpata-dantza, the sword dance, was performed in the Plaza Consistorial, where the group raises its leader on a grid of crossed swords, facing the Town Hall as a greeting.
Saturday had its own shape. The Comparsa toured the Old Town from 17:00 to 20:30, and La Pamplonesa played a concert in the Plaza del Castillo at 19:00.
“Several other events happened throughout the city. There was the Comparsa de Gigantes y Cabezudos, and music played by La Pamplonesa. The festival featured multiple dianas, in music by the municipal txistularis and gaiteros.”
The txistu is a Basque three-holed flute, and the gaiteros are the pipers. Together with the giants and the band, they are the same municipal groups that carry July, working a much smaller stage.
The Peñas Keep Their Doors Open
The city’s programme is only half of Txikito. The other half is run by the peñas, Pamplona’s social clubs, and this is where the weekend feels most like Pamplona rather than like a festival for visitors.
“The local peñas in the town are quite active during this weekend.”
Dennis describes what that means on the ground:
“The peñas often host meals, their bars are open, their headquarters are open for people to convene. Their bands can be found throughout the streets.”
Txikito also does a job the July fiesta cannot. It arrives in late September, more than nine months before the next July.
“San Fermín Chiquito is definitely a way to raise spirits, knowing that the next year’s San Fermín is a long way away.”
Pamplona Outside Fiesta Is a Different City
Dennis’s authority on this comes from repeated visits outside the fiesta, for reasons that have nothing to do with the run.
“I’ve gone for various reasons, for business meetings, for studying Spanish at the Institute, and just working remote from the town.”
The Institute is the Pamplona Learning Spanish Institute, a Spanish immersion school for international students in a historic building on Avenida Baja Navarra, beside the Media Luna park.
His picture of the city is specific:
“I’ve been to Pamplona many times outside of Fiesta, and it has a different vibe. Pamplona, despite how it is normally characterized, is a vibrant city throughout the year, although it’s without the trash and drunkenness when San Fermín is not occurring. Pamplona is normally quite orderly and quaint.”
That contrast shapes the advice he gives clients about timing.
“It’s much more quaint and organized outside Fiesta. It’s the reason why I often advise people to get to Fiesta a day early, so they get to see Pamplona before it’s destroyed by celebration.”
One of those trips was work of a different kind. Dennis went to Pamplona to film the Definitive Guide to Running with Bulls, the video embedded below.
“We also went there to make the definitive guide to running with bulls. We went and filmed it. I filmed it with my co-producer from Chasing Red.”
Chasing Red is the documentary about the running of the bulls that Dennis directed, and it is available to watch at ChasingRedMovie.com.
March 2017: The Night the Street Below Burned
The exception proves how unusual the rule is. The story below is the one time Dennis saw the Old Town go the other way.
The street was Calle Mercaderes, which is part of the route the bulls run every July. The month was March 2017.
“Except for one time when I was in Pamplona in March of 2017. While staying at a piso, that’s an apartment or a flat, on Calle Mercaderes, there were unexpected riots. On the street below, hooded assailants burned containers. Stones and glass bottles were thrown at police. Flammable liquids and fireworks were present. The police confronted the rioters, and a block by block struggle for control ensued. The next day it was reported that business facades, ATMs, and windows had been broken.”
The published court record of violence at a demonstration in the Old Town is dated 11 March 2017, which fits the month he remembers. Dennis makes no claim about who was involved or why, and this article makes none either. What he took from it is a matter of proportion:
“That was unexpected and is uncommon.”
The lesson is the one the rest of the article supports. Pamplona outside Fiesta is orderly by default, and a night like that is the exception a visitor should know exists, not the norm a visitor should expect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there bulls at San Fermín Txikito?
No. There is no running of the bulls and no bullring event at Txikito. What exists are a children’s encierro with wheeled bulls and a toro de fuego, the fireworks bull carried through the street. Bull runs were staged at Txikito in a few experimental years in the 1990s, but they are not part of the festival now.
When is San Fermín Txikito?
It is held on the weekend nearest 25 September, the feast day of Saint Fermín. In 2026 the festival ran from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 September, with the city’s programme on Saturday and Sunday. The programme is typically published about ten days beforehand, so confirm the schedule each year rather than assuming it.
What is Pamplona like outside the San Fermín fiesta?
Dennis describes it as a vibrant city all year that is much more orderly and quaint without the July crowds. He has been there many times outside Fiesta for business meetings, language study and remote work. His view is that seeing the city before the fiesta begins is worth the extra day.
Dennis Clancey is the founder of Encierro and has run the encierro every encierro year since 2007. Every article on the Encierro blog is authored or reviewed by active bull runners with direct experience in Pamplona.