Most English-language writing on recortes describes it as a “bloodless bullfight” and traces it, without much sourcing, straight back to Bronze Age bull-leaping on Minoan Crete. What that coverage skips is more useful than the ancient-history flourish: recortes has a well-documented Spanish competitive history going back to the 1930s, a real circuit with named champions, and, most relevant to anyone standing in Pamplona in July, a version of it that happens inside the city’s own bullring every single morning of the fiesta, minutes after the world’s most famous bull run ends.
Missing that last part matters because most visitors watch the encierro and leave. The event immediately following it, inside the same ring, is one of the most participatory moments of the entire festival, open to anyone 18 or older willing to buy a cheap ticket and climb into the stands, or in some cases the sand.
This article draws on Spain’s documented competitive recortes record (cross-referenced across Spanish Wikipedia’s own citations to El Mundo, Faro de Vigo, and El Norte de Castilla), the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona’s own event and ticketing pages, rather than the recycled “ancient sport” framing that dominates English search results.
What Recortes Actually Is
Recortes is an athletic discipline built on three core techniques, performed with no cape held out in the matador sense, no sword, and no kill. A recorte (or corte) means calling the animal head-on, meeting its charge, and cutting across its path at the last instant, taking its “face” and exiting with your back to it. A quiebro means standing your ground, or running to meet the charge, and deceiving the animal with a hip or waist movement rather than moving your feet. A salto means jumping over the animal entirely, with named variations including the salto del ángel, the salto a pies juntos, the salto con garrocha performed with a simple pole, the tirabuzón, and the mortal, a full somersault.
The first documented modern recortador dates to 1930. Some accounts, including a line inside recortes’ own Spanish Wikipedia entry, describe the discipline as a symbolic descendant of Bronze Age bull-leaping practiced on Minoan Crete. That connection is asserted more often than it is demonstrated. There is no continuous documented practice linking 20th-century Spain back to the Bronze Age; there is a well-documented start point in 1930s Spain, and that is the version of the history worth trusting.
A Real Competitive Circuit, Not Just a Folk Curiosity
Recortes supports a genuine national competitive circuit in Spain, not a single informal custom. The Concurso Nacional de Cortes de Medina del Campo, in Valladolid, is the oldest, established in 1981. The Liga Nacional del Corte Puro holds its final in Valladolid as well. The Campeonato de España de Recortadores, the sport’s top national title, held its final at Las Ventas in Madrid from 2003 through 2011 and again in 2018 and 2019, with other years staged in Zaragoza. Regional championships are tied to specific festivals: Valencia’s Fallas, Zaragoza’s Pilar, and Castellón’s Magdalena all run their own recortadores titles.
Named champions carry real, cross-referenced records. Sergio Delgado won the Campeonato de España de Recortadores in multiple years through the 2000s, a record independently confirmed across Spanish regional press rather than resting on a single source.
A specific ring-focused version of the sport, concurso de recortadores con anillas, has pairs of competitors trying to fit rings onto a bull or vaquilla’s horns within a set time, usually three minutes. This discipline is described as especially rooted along the Ebro river valley, from La Rioja through Navarra and Aragón to the Ebro delta, with Madrid and Valencia also producing many of the sport’s leading names.
Pamplona’s Own Version, Every Morning of the Fiesta
Pamplona runs its own recortes tradition daily, and it has nothing to do with the professional circuit described above. Every morning from July 7 through July 14, once the fourth rocket confirms every bull is secured after the 8:00 a.m. encierro, the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona stages a city-run capeas o suelta de vaquillas at the Plaza de Toros. Vaquillas, young heifers with padded horns, are released into the ring one at a time, and members of the public step in to perform recortes in front of them.
The rules are specific and posted directly by the city: grabbing, harassing, or mistreating the animals is prohibited, as is blocking their return to the corrals. Anyone under 18 is barred from participating in or even standing in the ring, with parents and guardians held responsible for enforcing that limit on minors present. Typically four vaquillas are released each morning, though that number can rise at the discretion of the police chief or the delegate overseeing the event. No deaths have ever been recorded at this event, though injuries, mostly bumps and bruises from a hard fall or a glancing hit, are a regular part of it.
Getting in does not require an expensive ticket. A general-admission entry to the Plaza de Toros for the tail end of the encierro and the vaquillas that follow costs 12 euros on July 7, 11, and 12, and 7 euros for adults, 4 for children under 12, on July 8, 9, 10, 13, and 14. Tickets go on sale online from June 1 through feriadeltoro.com, or in person at the bullring box office, which opens an early window, 6:00 to 8:00 a.m., on run days when tickets remain.
The Concurso de Recortadores: A Different Event, With Real Bulls
Pamplona also hosts a separate, once-a-year competition that has nothing to do with the daily vaquillas described above. The Concurso Nacional de Recortes, Saltos y Quiebros, held at the Plaza de Toros, pits invited recortadores against toros with their horns left natural rather than padded. In 2025, sixteen recortadores faced five bulls in this format. A second, related contest runs on a different day of the same festival: the Concurso Nacional de Recortadores con Anillas, in which pairs of competitors try to fit rings onto the horns of the animals within a set time limit, typically three minutes, facing a dozen head from a named cattle ranch.
Both contests are organized jointly by a ganadería and the Casa de Misericordia, and both draw from the same national recortador circuit described earlier in this article, meaning the names competing in Pamplona are often the same ones who compete at Medina del Campo or Las Ventas. Tickets are sold the same way as other Plaza de Toros events during the fair, through feriadeltoro.com or at the bullring box office.
This is a different event from the vaquillas that follow the encierro each morning. The animals are different, full-grown toros or cows rather than young heifers, the participants are invited competitors rather than members of the public, and it happens on a specific scheduled date rather than daily. What both events share is the underlying discipline: recorte, quiebro, and salto, performed without a sword, without a cape held out, and without killing the animal.
Why This Is the Event Most Visitors Never See
The almuerzo that fills Pamplona’s streets after the encierro gets far more attention in travel writing than what happens in the bullring in the minutes before it. Visitors who leave the barrera the second the last bull disappears into the callejón miss the loudest, most communal moment of the entire morning: ordinary people, most of them locals, choosing to step in front of an animal for a few seconds of recognition from a packed stadium.
It is a different event from the encierro itself, run under different rules, with a different animal, and open to a different kind of participation. Where the encierro is defined by running alongside the bulls on a fixed street route, the vaquillas event is stationary, contained inside the ring, and built entirely around the recorte, quiebro, and salto techniques described above.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is recortes in Spanish bullfighting?
Recortes is a discipline where a person dodges, sidesteps, or leaps over a bull or vaquilla using only body movement, without a sword, a matador’s cape, or killing the animal. It is a distinct sport from bullfighting, not a variant of it.
Is recortes the same as vaquillas in Pamplona?
Not exactly. Vaquillas refers to the young heifers released into Pamplona’s bullring after the encierro; recortes is the technique performed in front of them. The event itself is called a “capea o suelta de vaquillas,” and recortes is what participants do during it.
Do you need a ticket to watch the vaquillas after the encierro in Pamplona?
Yes. Entry to the Plaza de Toros is a paid general-admission ticket, 12 euros on July 7, 11, and 12, and 7 euros for adults on the remaining festival days, sold online through feriadeltoro.com or at the bullring box office.
Is the Concurso de Recortadores the same as the vaquillas event?
No. The Concurso de Recortadores is a separate, single-day competition with invited recortadores facing full-grown toros or cows, scored and scheduled once during the festival. The vaquillas event happens every morning after the encierro, uses young heifers, and is open to any member of the public willing to step in. Both rest on the same recorte, quiebro, and salto techniques.
Is recortes dangerous?
No deaths have been recorded at Pamplona’s vaquillas event, but injuries, including bumps, bruises, and occasional harder impacts, happen regularly. Participants perform without protective equipment beyond the animal’s own padded horns.
Every article on the Encierro blog is authored or reviewed by active bull runners with direct experience in Pamplona.