San Fermín 2021: A City Between Two Cancellations

· Founder of Encierro, veteran bull runner

What It Was Really Like to Be There

Dennis Clancey · Founder, Encierro · In Pamplona, July 2021

I was in Pamplona that week. Not many people from anywhere were.

There was a kind of exhausted grief about it. The bars were quieter than even a normal off-season Tuesday. You could walk down Estafeta at noon and hear your own footsteps.

What I remember most from that week is the soccer. Italy was playing England in the Euro final on July 11th. I watched it at a friend’s apartment, Tom Gowen’s place. It was still fairly quiet. Italy won on penalties, which was something.

On the 6th, about a hundred people gathered around noon in the Town Hall Square. Some had their red pañuelos. Someone threw confetti. There was no cohete, no rocket from the Town Hall, and no music. A couple of rockets went off somewhere else in the city. When I arrived in town, there was a programme being distributed that everyone called Sinfermines, a play on Sanfermines, with sin meaning without in Spanish. That was the popular nickname around town, never the official name. The city’s official replacement programme was called Viva Pamplona Viva. But none of it was the fiesta.

And then on the night of the 14th, a small group went to the Plaza Consistorial for something like a Pobre de Mí. I was there. It was unofficial, with no music and no band. Fewer than a hundred people. Journalists outnumbered civilians. But at midnight someone shouted “Gora San Fermín,” and people raised their pañuelos, and they sang four minutes of Pobre de Mí for a fiesta that never happened. It was one of the more moving things I have seen in all my years coming to Pamplona. A farewell to nothing. A promise that they would return.

Dennis Clancey · Founder, Encierro

Dennis Clancey · A working week in Pamplona, July 2021

I stayed at the Hotel Pompaelo. I was working remotely at the time, and because I was working for a US-based NGO, I was essentially working from two in the afternoon to eleven at night every day.

That left the mornings free, so I would go and study at the Pamplona Spanish Institute. Then I would go sit on the Plaza del Castillo for lunch, a tortilla española and an espresso at Café Iruña. I would read the newspaper, then walk back to my hotel room to do my work.

Right after noon on July 6, once the chupinazo moment without a rocket had passed, we had lunch outside on Calle Dormitalería, in front of the Santa María cathedral, with friends. It was at a place on the corner with Calle Curia. Today it is called Amatxo; I can’t remember what it was called back then. That is what the fiesta week looked like for me in 2021: study, a plaza lunch, a full working afternoon and evening, and a city holding its breath around me.

Dennis Clancey · Founder, Encierro

The Second Year Without a Fiesta

On Monday, 26 April 2021, Pamplona Mayor Enrique Maya stood before the press and said, in the words Reuters reported, what no one wanted to hear for the second straight year: "To my very despair, I'm forced to officially suspend the festival of San Fermin in 2021." The San Fermín fiesta and every one of its eight encierros were cancelled.

The last time the fiesta had not been held two years in a row was 1937 and 1938. To lose it once to a pandemic was shocking. To lose it twice was something harder to name.

In some ways the second cancellation was harder than the first. The first arrived with the shock of the pandemic itself. The second arrived after a year of waiting, of rising hopes, of vaccination programmes that were running behind schedule. The public-health numbers at the time of the announcement were stark: Navarra was at alert level 4, at 432 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over two weeks, with 199 people hospitalised and 39 in intensive care. Only 202 people in every 1,000 had received one vaccine dose, and 83 in every 1,000 both doses. The city could not safely hold a fiesta that draws visitors from around the world.

The last time San Fermín was not held two years running was 1937 and 1938. Losing it once to a pandemic was shocking. Losing it twice was something harder to name.

COVID in Navarra, July 2021

By the time the would-be fiesta dates arrived in July 2021, the picture in Spain had changed significantly from the cancellation announcement in April.

Navarra was at alert level 4 when the cancellation was announced in April. By early July, infections were rising sharply again, driven by end-of-year student trips to Salou.

The city of Pamplona did not cancel only the fiesta. It redirected much of the San Fermín budget into an alternative summer programme called Viva Pamplona Viva, with more than 400 cultural activities from June to September. A chess tournament featuring world champion Magnus Carlsen and an equestrian Grand Prix were among the highlights. It was a valiant effort. It was not San Fermín.

The economic toll was severe. Bars and restaurants lost the single week of the year that accounts for 15 to 20 percent of their annual revenue, two years in a row.

What Happened in Pamplona, July 6 to 14

The official word was unambiguous. There was no fiesta. No chupinazo, no procession, no gigantes, no encierros, no Pobre de Mí as an official act. The council stood up a substantial policing operation with an Advanced Command Post coordinating Municipal Police, Foral Police, National Police and Civil Guard from the City Hall, with the authority to seal off streets in the Old Town if crowds built. Drinks had to be consumed inside bars or on terraces.

And yet the city did not fall entirely silent. On the morning of July 6, people in white and red drifted into the centre, fewer than had gathered in 2020, but they came. The Ayuntamiento de Pamplona reported 250 to 300 people inside the plaza when access was closed at 11:55. Dennis Clancey, who was in the Town Hall Square, counts about a hundred. At noon, the hour the chupinazo would have fired, red pañuelos went up, rockets and firecrackers went off at different points around the city, confetti fell, and people called out “Viva San Fermín” and “Gora San Fermín.” There was no rocket fired from the Town Hall and no music. It lasted a few minutes. A programme circulated around town that people nicknamed Sinfermines, a play on Sanfermines, with sin meaning without in Spanish. That was the popular name, never the official one. The city’s official replacement was Viva Pamplona Viva, and the moments at the Town Hall belonged to people who could not stay away.

The council made one deliberate change from 2020: they did not hang a pañuelo banner on the City Hall façade this time. In 2020 they had unfurled the large kerchief with the "#LosViviremos" message.

On the night of July 14 at midnight, the hour the Pobre de Mí traditionally closes the fiesta, fewer than a hundred people gathered in the Plaza Consistorial for a symbolic farewell. Police, journalists and photographers outnumbered the handful of civilians. Dennis Clancey was there: it was unofficial, with no music and no band. At midnight, someone shouted "Gora San Fermín," and the small crowd responded. Pañuelos went up. For about four minutes, they sang the Pobre de Mí for a fiesta that had never happened. The Spanish press captured the moment in a piece that called it, accurately, a Pobre de Mí with nothing to bid farewell to.

What You Could and Could Not Do in Pamplona in July 2021

Cancelled did not mean closed. Pamplona in early July 2021 was open, but under rules that made a fiesta impossible. Here is what a visitor lived under, from the sources we could verify.

Masks. From 26 June, masks were no longer required outdoors in Spain when a distance of 1.5 metres could be kept. They were still required in crowds, indoors and on public transport.

Bars and restaurants. In Navarra, from 18 June indoor capacity rose from 30 to 50 percent, with tables two metres apart, a maximum of six diners per table and closing at midnight. From 7 July, new Gobierno de Navarra rules closed hospitality at 1:00 a.m.

The streets around the Town Hall. Police set up access controls at the Plaza Consistorial and the Plaza del Castillo, with the centre of each plaza fenced. Drinks had to be consumed inside bars or on terraces.

The health backdrop. That week, infections in Navarra were rising sharply, driven by end-of-year student trips to Salou.

What the city offered instead. Viva Pamplona Viva ran from June to September 2021 with more than 400 cultural and leisure activities. It included a chess event with Magnus Carlsen, concerts at the Ciudadela and a seated, capacity-controlled performance by the Comparsa de Gigantes y Cabezudos in place of street processions.

Italy, England, and the July 11 Final

In the middle of the week that was not a fiesta, there was one night that felt like something close to one. On Sunday, July 11, 2021, Italy and England played the final of UEFA Euro 2020 at Wembley in London.

England scored in the second minute through Luke Shaw, the fastest goal in a European Championship final, and held the lead into the second half. Leonardo Bonucci equalised in the 67th minute, and the match went to extra time and then to penalties. Italy's goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was the hero, saving Bukayo Saka's decisive penalty; Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford also missed for England. Italy won 3-2 on spot kicks. It was Italy's second European Championship, after 1968.

Dennis Clancey watched the match in Pamplona that night, at the apartment of a friend, Tom Gowen. Spain still had restrictions in place, and the city stayed quiet. There was no mass gathering, no bars filling with crowds. But the match was real, the tension was real, and the result landed.

It was a brief and borrowed celebration. But in a week that had very little to celebrate, it mattered.

Italy won on penalties. Pamplona stayed quiet. But it was still the most alive the city felt that week.

Those Who Came Anyway

The 12th Anniversary on Telefónica

On July 10, 2021, twelve years passed since the death of Daniel Jimeno Romero. The 27-year-old from Alcalá de Henares was gored on the Telefónica stretch during the encierro of July 10, 2009, caught by the Jandilla bull Capuchino. He is the last runner to have died in the Pamplona running of the bulls.

In 2021, on the 12th anniversary, the route along Telefónica stood empty of runners for the second straight year. No encierro passed through. No crowd pressed against the fence.

The Eight Ganaderías That Never Ran

No encierros ran in 2021. These eight ranches ran the encierros when the fiesta returned in 2022.

• MiuraClosed the 2022 fiesta on July 14.
• Cebada GagoFirst ran the Pamplona encierro in 1985; ran on July 11, 2022.
• JandillaIts bull Capuchino killed Daniel Jimeno on July 10, 2009; ran on July 12, 2022.
• Fuente YmbroSan José del Valle, Cádiz. Ran on July 8, 2022.
• Núñez del CuvilloRan the first encierro of 2022, on July 7.
• Victoriano del RíoRan on July 13, 2022, the fastest run of that year.
• José Escolar GilDebuted in Pamplona in 2015; ran on July 9, 2022.
• La PalmosillaDebuted in Pamplona in 2019; ran on July 10, 2022.

All eight ultimately ran in the 2022 encierros when the fiesta returned. When it did, the 848.6-meter encierro route came back to life.

The Second Cancellation, as the World Saw It

The April 26 suspension announcement moved as a Reuters wire story worldwide within hours.

Key Dates of 2021

The timeline of the second cancellation, kept on the record.

San Fermín 2021, Answered

Why was San Fermín 2021 cancelled?

Mayor Enrique Maya announced the suspension on April 26, 2021, citing the COVID-19 health situation in Navarra: 432 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over two weeks, 199 hospitalised, 39 in intensive care, and a vaccination rate that was running well behind projections. The decision was taken at a city council level, as in 2020.

How was 2021 different from the 2020 cancellation?

The 2020 cancellation was the first year since 1938 that the fiesta was not held, and arrived with the initial shock of the pandemic. The 2021 cancellation came after a year of waiting and rising expectations. Vaccination was underway but behind schedule. There was no pañuelo banner on the City Hall facade in 2021, as a deliberate step to avoid signalling a gathering. Turnout on July 6 was lower than in 2020. The informal Pobre de Mi drew fewer than a hundred people, with journalists outnumbering civilians.

What actually happened in Pamplona during July 6 to 14, 2021?

The city’s official replacement was the Viva Pamplona Viva summer programme. Around town, a distributed programme was nicknamed Sinfermines, a play on Sanfermines, with sin meaning without in Spanish. On July 6, people in white and red gathered in the Town Hall Square at noon (250 to 300 inside when access closed at 11:55, per the Ayuntamiento; about 100 by Dennis Clancey’s count), raised their pañuelos and threw confetti, with no rocket from the Town Hall and no music. On the night of July 14, fewer than a hundred people sang an unofficial Pobre de Mi, with no music and no band, in the Plaza Consistorial. Italy won the Euro soccer final on July 11; Dennis Clancey watched it at a friend’s apartment in Pamplona. The city stayed quiet throughout.

When did San Fermín return after the two-year break?

San Fermín returned in July 2022, with eight encierros running from July 7 to 14. It was the first time the running of the bulls had taken place since 2019. See the full 2022 recap here, or visit the how to run with the bulls guide to prepare.

What was Sinfermines, and was it the official name?

Sinfermines was the popular nickname for the week, a play on Sanfermines with sin meaning without in Spanish. A programme under that name was being distributed around town when Dennis Clancey arrived, but it was never the official name. The city’s official replacement programme was Viva Pamplona Viva.

Was there a chupinazo in 2021?

No. There was no official chupinazo. On July 6, 2021, people gathered in the Town Hall Square at noon with red pañuelos and confetti: 250 to 300 inside when access closed at 11:55, according to the Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, and about 100 by Dennis Clancey’s count. Dennis Clancey, who was there, recalls no rocket fired from the Town Hall and no music.

Could you visit Pamplona in July 2021?

Yes, but not for a fiesta. The city was open under Covid rules: masks indoors and in crowds, bars and restaurants at reduced capacity, closing at 1:00 a.m. from July 7, and police controls at the Plaza Consistorial and Plaza del Castillo. Dennis Clancey stayed at the Hotel Pompaelo that week, working remotely and studying Spanish in the mornings.

Was a poster made for San Fermín 2021?

No. The annual cartel competition was not held in 2020 or 2021. The official pamplona.es archive goes directly from the 2019 poster by Edurne Taínta Balda to the 2022 poster selected when the fiesta returned. There is no official San Fermin image for 2021.

San Fermín returned in 2022

Two years of silence. Then on July 6, 2022, the chupinazo fired again. Read the full account of the return, or see how to run with the runners who teach it.

Browse every year in the archive

Sources

Every fact on this page is checked against these sources. Where sources disagreed, the one closest to the day won.

• The Local Spain, "Running of the bulls: Pamplona San Fermin cancelled over coronavirus", 2020-04-21. thelocal.es
• Euro Weekly News, "Pamplona's San Fermin bull run cancelled due to the coronavirus", 2021-02-02. euroweeklynews.com
• Irish Times / Reuters, "Pamplona cancels bull-running festival for second year", 2021-04-26. irishtimes.com
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "El Ayuntamiento de Pamplona suspende la celebración de las fiestas de San Fermín en 2021", 2021-04-26. pamplona.es
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "¡Viva Pamplona viva! summer programme", 2021-04-29. pamplona.es
• Valencia Plaza, "Las mascarillas dejarán de ser obligatorias en el exterior si se mantiene 1,5 metros de distancia", 2021-06-23. valenciaplaza.com
• Noticias de Navarra, "Pamplona se contiene sin Sanfermines", 2021-07-06. noticiasdenavarra.com
• elDiario.es, "Pamplona vive su segundo 6 de julio sin chupinazo de San Fermin en pleno repunte de contagios", 2021-07-06. eldiario.es
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Normalidad en las primeras horas de este 6 de julio sin fiestas de San Fermín", 2021-07-06. pamplona.es
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "El Ayuntamiento de Pamplona edita un 'periódico' con información del encierro", 2022-07-01. pamplona.es
• Onda Vasca, "16 fallecidos en el encierro desde 1900", 2022-07-11. ondavasca.com
• Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, "Carteles de San Fermin (official poster archive)". pamplona.es

The 2022 Return

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