San Fermín 1998: Jandilla opened the festival with a fast run and one serious goring.
July 6 to 14, 1998. Eight encierros and no deaths.
Curated by Dennis Clancey
· Founder of Encierro, veteran bull runner
8
Encierros
0
Deaths
Looking Back at 1998
Dennis Clancey · Founder, Encierro
Looking back at 1998, two things defined the year. First: Jandilla on July 7. That positioning put one of the encierro's fastest and most compact ganaderías on the first morning, before the week had built, before veteran runners had a full night in Pamplona. It was a statement of confidence in the ranch's standing. Second: the tone of the week. El País wrote that the last encierro followed the clean, fast tone of the fiesta.
Looking back at what produces a mild year, the honest answer is that no one fully knows. Animal behavior varies. Crowd density changes. The specific geometry of each morning, how the bulls move through the curves, whether a runner falls in the wrong place at the wrong moment, involves variables that resist systematic explanation. No deaths, and no single disaster. The taurine world moved on to 1999 and the question of what the last fiesta of the 1990s would look like.
Dennis Clancey, Founder, Encierro
1998 in contextJandilla on the Opening Morning
Jandilla ran the opening encierro on July 7, 1998, and El País reported a fast run with one serious goring. Peñajara made its Pamplona encierro debut on July 11, and Torrealta closed the week on July 14 with a clean, fast run.
Morning by morningEvery 1998 Encierro, Day by Day
Each run with its ganadería. The route runs 848.6 meters from Santo Domingo to the ring.
Tue July 7 · First run
Jandilla
El País reported a fast run by the Jandilla bulls with one serious goring.
Wed July 8 · Second run
Conde de la Corte
El País reported an uneventful run by the Conde de la Corte bulls.
Thu July 9 · Third run
Guardiola Fantoni
El País reported that the Guardiola bulls completed the route without incident.
Fri July 10 · Fourth run
Cebada Gago
The Cebada Gago bulls ran that morning and were fought that afternoon, according to the El País television listing.
Sat July 11 · Fifth run
Peñajara
El País reported a slow, eventful encierro on the debut of the Peñajara bulls.
Sun July 12 · Sixth run
Miura
El País described a typical Sunday Miura encierro, calm but massively crowded.
Mon July 13 · Seventh run
Marqués de Domecq
El País reported a dangerous run when a Domecq bull was left loose on the course.
What the Record Remembers
Scheduling
Jandilla Opens
Jandilla ran the opening encierro on July 7, 1998. El País reported a fast run with one serious goring.
Statistics
The 1998 Encierros
El País described the last encierro of 1998 as clean and fast, in keeping with the rest of the fiesta, but it gives no goring total for the week. No one died.
Ganadería
Peñajara at Run Five
Peñajara ran the fifth morning, July 11, on its Pamplona encierro debut. El País described a slow, eventful run.
The Official CartelOfficial Sanfermines Poster, 1998
Cartel 1998 by Xabier Idoate Irigoyen.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, cartel archive
Beyond the runThe City in 1998
Pamplona in July 1998 held eight encierros, from Jandilla on July 7 to Torrealta on July 14.
No runner standing in the street at 8:00 AM watching Cebada Gago or Jandilla approach experiences the morning as uneventful. The Pobre de Mí at midnight on July 14 marked the close of a fiesta that had given Pamplona a week to be quietly grateful for.
The recordHow 1998 Came Together
Key facts in the 1998 fiesta, kept on the record.
6 July 1998
The chupinazo fires at noon, opening the 1998 fiesta. The rocket is launched by the councillor Concha Fernández de Pinedo.
7 July 1998
Jandilla runs the opening encierro: a fast run with one serious goring (El País).
12 July 1998
Miura runs the sixth encierro, a calm but crowded Sunday run (El País).
14 July 1998
Torrealta closes the 1998 festival with a clean, fast run (El País). The Pobre de Mí ceremony marks the close of San Fermín at midnight.
San Fermín 1998, Answered
How did the 1998 encierros go?
El País described the last encierro as clean and fast, in keeping with the rest of the fiesta, though it reported a serious goring on July 7 and a dangerous run with a loose Domecq bull on July 13. No one died.
Was 1998 the first time Jandilla opened the festival?
Jandilla ran the opening encierro on July 7, 1998. The sources we have found do not say whether it had opened the fiesta before.
How did Miura's 1998 position compare to recent years?
Miura ran sixth in 1998, on July 12, after running second in 1995 and first in 1996; its 1997 encierro, set for July 13, was suspended. El País described the 1998 run as a typical Sunday Miura encierro, calm but crowded.
What is Peñajara and why did they appear on the 1998 card?
Peñajara made its Pamplona encierro debut on July 11, 1998, the fifth morning. El País described a slow, eventful run.
Sources
Every fact on this page is checked against these sources. Where sources disagreed, the one closest to the day won.
- El País, "Los sanfermines se unen al dolor", 1997-07-13. elpais.com
- El País, "Chupinazo feminista en los sanfermines (portada)", 1998-07-07. elpais.com
- El País, "Limpio y con cornada", 1998-07-08. elpais.com
- El País, "El cabestro", 1998-07-09. elpais.com
- El País, "Patas", 1998-07-10. elpais.com
- El País, "Corrida de la feria de San Fermín (TVE listing)", 1998-07-10. elpais.com
- El País, "El toro filósofo", 1998-07-12. elpais.com
- El País, "Divinos", 1998-07-13. elpais.com
- El País, "El 'colorao'", 1998-07-14. elpais.com
- El País, "La fiesta y la nada", 1998-07-15. elpais.com
- Público, "La víctima número 15 en la historia de los Sanfermines", 2009-07-10. publico.es
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Encierro (turismo, French version)". pamplona.es
- Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Carteles de San Fermin". pamplona.es
Planning your own run?
For 1997, the year Jandilla ran fifth and the Miura encierro of July 13 was suspended, see the 1997 page. For 1999, see the 1999 page.