Fri July 7 · First run
La Palmosilla
2:31Gored: 0
Fast and clean, true to the ranch, opening the fiesta for the third straight year; a bull grazed a runner at the Mercaderes curve without catching him.
July 6 to 14, 2023. Every encierro, every ganadería, every video, and the stories the numbers leave out.
By the count that matters, 2023 was one of the cleanest and fastest years the encierro had seen in half a century: two horn wounds across eight mornings, and six of the eight runs over in under two and a half minutes.
But clean and fast is its own kind of danger. A fast herd gives you less time to read it and less time to react. 2023 still had its moments, the bull Forajido flipping a runner and catching him on the descent to the callejón, the Cebada Gago herd breaking apart and arriving loose among the crowd. The run asks for respect every single morning, whatever the final tally says.
The danger never left the streets. On the third morning the Cebada Gago herd broke apart and arrived loose among the runners, and on the seventh the Victoriano del Río bull Forajido flipped a runner and gored him on the descent to the callejón. And yet, by the count that matters most, just two runners were gored across the eight runs, matched in the modern era only by 2018 and 1984, while six of the eight runs finished under 2:25, making 2023 one of the fastest editions on record. Read the full archive year by year, or the 2024 recap, to see where 2023 sits.
Six of the eight runs under two minutes twenty-five, and none over three minutes, one of the fastest fiestas ever run.
Each run with its ganadería, time, horn injuries, and the official video. The route runs about 849 meters from Santo Domingo to the ring; see the route map.
Fast and clean, true to the ranch, opening the fiesta for the third straight year; a bull grazed a runner at the Mercaderes curve without catching him.
A diabolical pace; the Escolar bulls swept runners aside with their horns without truly charging.
The slowest and most dangerous run of 2023. The herd broke apart and arrived loose among the crowd; one runner gored in the Telefonica stretch.
Very fast, flew through Pamplona, on the morning of the Daniel Jimeno tribute. Several runners hurt by falls, none gored.
Fast and clean. The black bull Farfonillo (555 kilos) took the lead and ran almost the entire course alone.
Uncharacteristically noble and calm for a feared herd; the bulls ceded the lead to the steers and caught no one.
The fastest run of 2023. The bull Forajido flipped a runner and caught him from behind on the descent to the callejon: Randy Harms, 58, of Curacao, with a slight wound.
The traditional closer, fast and noble, run roughly in two groups; the Miuras avoided the many runners, ending two straight years of Miura gorings.
Before the fourth run, on July 10, the 14th anniversary of the death of Daniel Jimeno Romero, his parents, Daniel and Mari Carmen, laid red and white roses at the fence at post 66 on Telefónica, the exact spot where their 27-year-old son was caught by the Jandilla bull Capuchino in 2009. The bouquet carried a handwritten note, “tus padres, hermana y familia no te olvidamos,” your parents, sister and family do not forget you.
The flowers were laid with a San Fermín neckerchief bearing the names of every runner who has died in the encierro, so the tribute remembers them all. Daniel Jimeno remains the last person killed in the Pamplona run; sixteen runners have died across more than a century, and 2023 added no name to that list.
It was the first fully normal fiesta after the pandemic years, and the city celebrated it. The chupinazo was fired by Luis Sabalza, president of Osasuna, with a defiant cry of “¡No nos rendiremos!” In the July 7 procession, Miren Goñi became the first woman in history to bear the image of San Fermín. The program’s headline novelty moved the giants’ farewell to the Plaza del Castillo, Germany’s Tim Hannig took the San Fermín de Oro for his fireworks display “Seasons in Fire,” and the poster, “Instante,” caught the run in two inks, red and black. It closed with the candlelit Pobre de Mí at midnight on the 14th.
2023 was the year CNN’s “Seeing Red” brought a global audience to the run, with correspondent David Culver running an encierro himself.
The Pamplona photographers and the Navarra press shoot every morning. These links go straight to the 2023 galleries.
The planning and key dates, kept on the record.
The poster “Instante” by Raúl López Martín won the public vote, a single runner beside a bull in red and black.
Assembly of the double vallado began, over 900 posts and roughly 2,700 planks, closed before the first run.
Eight ranches were set with no debutant, La Palmosilla opening for the third straight year and Miura closing on the 14th.
Osasuna opened the fiesta with the chupinazo; nine days later Pobre de Mí closed it at midnight.
Two, across the eight encierros, on July 9 (Cebada Gago) and July 13 (Victoriano del Rio), one of the cleanest editions in fifty years.
La Palmosilla, Jose Escolar, Cebada Gago, Fuente Ymbro, Nunez del Cuvillo, Jandilla, Victoriano del Rio, and Miura, in that order from July 7 to 14.
Victoriano del Rio on July 13, at 2 minutes 14 seconds; six of the eight runs finished under 2:25.
No. The last death in the Pamplona encierro was Daniel Jimeno in 2009.
About 1.45 million across the programmed events, with 16,730 runners on the cobbles, 28 percent more than 2022.
2023 is the record. For the upcoming fiesta and how to prepare, see San Fermín 2026 or learn the route with the runners who teach it.