In 2025, DYA Navarra, one of the two emergency medical services that work San Fermín, treated 935 people over the nine days of the fiesta. Two hundred and forty of them needed a hospital transfer. Most guides written for foreign visitors want you to believe the encierro is the reason for that number. It isn’t. Day by day, the published figures from Pamplona’s own emergency responders show contusions, trauma, and alcohol intoxication running far ahead of goring related transfers, every single morning of the festival.
That gap matters because it changes what you should actually be watching for. A visitor who arrives expecting the only danger to be six bulls on Cuesta de Santo Domingo will spend the other twenty three hours of each festival day unguarded against the things that actually fill Pamplona’s ambulances: a fall from a wall or a window after too much wine, a street pickpocket working a packed crowd, heat and dehydration in a city that regularly hits 30 degrees Celsius in July. This is not a “safety first” pamphlet. It is what the city’s own emergency services, police forces, and municipal government have published about what actually happens here.
This account is built from Pamplona’s own numbers, not travel blog guesswork. It draws on DYA Navarra’s published daily and season totals, Policía Municipal and Policía Foral crime statistics for San Fermín 2026, the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona’s own capacity and gender violence prevention programs, and sanfermin.com’s own visitor advice, cross-checked against independent Spanish press coverage. Where a specific incident is cited, it is independently documented, not assumed.
The Real Numbers Behind San Fermín’s Injuries
DYA Navarra’s daily breakdowns during San Fermín 2026 tell a consistent story. On July 8, the service attended 98 people: 49 for contusions and wounds, 11 for trauma, and 3 for alcohol intoxication, a small fraction directly tied to that morning’s encierro. On July 11, DYA Navarra logged 103 assistances: 45 contusions and wounds, 15 trauma cases, 7 cases of alcohol intoxication, and 4 people treated for illness. By July 12, the tally was 87 people with contusions and wounds, 19 trauma attendances, and 12 alcohol intoxications, the highest single day total for drink related care that week.
Across the full 2025 festival, DYA Navarra’s own reporting put the season total at 935 people attended, with 240 requiring hospital transfer. DYA Navarra has worked San Fermín since the organization’s Navarra branch was founded in 1977, growing out of the parent DYA association founded in Bilbao in 1966. In recent years DYA Navarra has deployed alongside Cruz Roja and a small team from the Servicio Navarro de Salud, a combined health presence that has run into the hundreds of staff and volunteers across the nine days. None of this displaces the fact that gorings happen and are genuinely dangerous. It does mean the raw volume of people needing medical help during San Fermín comes overwhelmingly from something other than the bulls themselves.
Falls, Alcohol, and the Risk No Guide Advertises
During Sanfermines 2026, a 23 year old man was injured after falling from Pamplona’s city wall while intoxicated, and was transported by DYA for treatment. It is one documented incident among many similar ones the daily medical figures above quietly track every year: people climbing onto walls, ledges, and building facades late at night, often after heavy drinking, in a city where centuries old stone drops are everywhere in the old quarter.
This is the part of any honest san fermín safety guide for visitors that generic travel blogs skip, because it isn’t dramatic in the way a bull is dramatic. It is also, by DYA Navarra’s own published numbers, one of the largest recurring categories of harm during the festival. The basic precaution is not complicated: don’t climb walls, ledges, fountains, or scaffolding at any hour, and treat alcohol and height as a combination that has put people in an ambulance every year records exist for. Broken glass is a related, smaller hazard, especially right after the txupinazo, when bottles routinely litter the ground in the old town; closed toe shoes are worth more than they sound.
Pickpockets, Plainclothes Police, and What the 2026 Numbers Show
Crime during San Fermín is real, but the trend line in 2026 ran in a good direction. Across the four police forces working the festival (Policía Municipal de Pamplona, Policía Foral de Navarra, Policía Nacional, and Guardia Civil), complaints fell 23 percent in the first four days of San Fermín 2026 compared with the same period the year before, while arrests rose 12 percent. Theft complaints specifically, historically the most common San Fermín crime, dropped 46 percent. Public transport ridership hit nearly 946,000 riders in the same window, a record, while theft reports on that same crowded network fell.
Part of that shift comes from tactics visitors rarely notice: Pamplona has used plainclothes officers working the densest crowds specifically to intercept pickpockets before a complaint is even filed. Understanding how the different agencies split responsibility, who has jurisdiction where, and what each uniform means, is covered in full in Pamplona’s Red Beret Isn’t Festival Costume. It’s Navarra’s Own Police Force. The practical version for a visitor, echoed in the festival’s own visitor advice, is simpler: keep valuables in a zipped front pocket, never carry your actual passport (a photocopy is enough), and agree a meeting point with anyone you’re travelling with before the crowd gets too thick to find them again.
Crowd Density at the Txupinazo and Other Pinch Points
The single most physically dense moment of the entire festival is the opening txupinazo. As many as 12,500 people pack into the roughly 2,502 square meter Plaza Consistorial, a density approaching five people per square meter, turning the whole plaza into something closer to a single slow moving organism than a crowd of individuals. Since 2020, the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona has enforced hard capacity limits at that event, capping Plaza Consistorial itself at 400 people and the adjoining Plaza del Castillo at 3,675, with Policía Municipal controlling access points on approach streets like Pozo Blanco once those numbers are reached.
The balcony’s own two centuries of history, and why the rocket is fired from that specific spot, is covered separately in Plaza Consistorial: The Balcony Is Two Centuries Older Than the Town Hall Behind It. What matters for a visitor deciding where to stand on July 6 is simpler: if the plaza itself looks full from the outside, it already is, and pushing toward it adds real crowd crush risk rather than a better view. The 2026 festival’s own opening day security deployment, roughly 2,700 officers and a medical post positioned every 50 meters along the route, exists specifically because that density is expected and planned for, not because anything has gone wrong.
Where Visitors Can Actually Get Help
For any medical emergency, Spain’s general number is 112, and SOS Navarra’s 112 center fielded 8,904 calls in just the first several days of San Fermín 2026. First aid posts are positioned along the encierro route and in high traffic areas throughout the old town during fiesta hours, and the Plaza de Toros keeps its own dedicated medical team and infirmary for bullring events.
A separate and specific resource exists for anyone experiencing sexist aggression or harassment: the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona runs a staffed “Punto Violeta” information point in Plaza del Castillo through the festival, distributing awareness materials and able to activate a confidential support and accompaniment protocol on request. Close to 10,000 people passed through that point during San Fermín 2026 alone. For 2026, the city added specialist training through the Gobierno de Navarra’s victim support center and improved coordination for cases involving minors. None of this requires filing a formal complaint first; the point exists precisely so someone can get help before deciding whether to involve police at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is San Fermín safe for tourists?
San Fermín is heavily policed and medically staffed, but it is not risk free. The festival’s own emergency response numbers show hundreds of people need medical attention every year for falls, alcohol related injuries, and trauma, alongside the well known dangers of the encierro itself. Basic precautions around alcohol, height, and valuables meaningfully reduce your risk.
What is the biggest safety risk at San Fermín, other than the bulls?
By volume, it is alcohol related injury and falls, not gorings. DYA Navarra’s own daily figures during San Fermín consistently show more people treated for contusions, trauma, and alcohol intoxication than for anything connected to the encierro.
What number do you call for an emergency during San Fermín?
Call 112, Spain’s general emergency number, which routes to SOS Navarra. During San Fermín 2026 that center fielded 8,904 calls in just the first several days of the festival.
Is Pamplona safe for women during San Fermín?
The Ayuntamiento de Pamplona runs a dedicated Punto Violeta information and support point in Plaza del Castillo throughout the festival specifically for sexist aggression and harassment, staffed with trained personnel who can activate a confidential accompaniment protocol on request. Nearly 10,000 people used that resource during San Fermín 2026.
Every article on the Encierro blog is authored or reviewed by active bull runners with direct experience in Pamplona.