Fiesta 2015 Edition: One-Week Third-Price eBook Deal

Meet the New 2015 Edition of Fiesta: How To Survive The Bulls Of Pamplona

The updated 2015 edition of Fiesta: How To Survive The Bulls Of Pamplona is out today as an Amazon eBook, and for a single week you can get it for one third of the usual price. Pick your local Amazon store from the list below to buy your copy.

Cover of Fiesta: How To Survive The Bulls Of Pamplona 2015 edition — The official English-language guide to the Pamplona bull-run

It is the only official guide published in English, and it begins with a foreword by the Mayor of Pamplona, which you can read further down. It is also the most authoritative book of its kind, with chapters from the most experienced American bull-runner in history, Joe Distler; John Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s grandson; ‘Buffalo’ Bill Hillmann, who was famously gored the year before; Beatrice Welles, Orson Welles’s daughter; and the best Spanish and Basque runners — Julen Madina, Miguel Ángel Eguiluz, Jokin Zuasti and Joschu Lopez — plus hundreds of photographs by EPA veteran Jim Hollander, taken over his half century in Pamplona.

Alexander Fiske-Harrison edits and co-writes the book. A former bullfighter and bull-survival expert (seen on ‘Bear Grylls: Extreme Survival’), he is an award-winning journalist for The Times and GQ, the BBC and the Discovery channel, and the author of Into The Arena: The World Of The Spanish Bullfight, a Sports Book Of The Year finalist.

A Foreword from the Mayor of Pamplona

Government of Pamplona emblem — Ayuntamiento de Pamplona

Government of Navarre emblem — Gobierno de Navarra

Government of Spain emblem — Gobierno de España

The Encierro — the ‘bull-run’ — runs deep in Pamplona’s history: since medieval times the bulls have been driven from beyond the city walls into the centre for the evening bullfight. Over the centuries the Encierro has become a legendary race, carrying both the weight of a tradition built across decades and the global reach of a 21st-century international event.

Fencing along the Encierro route arrived in 1776; the bulls first ran on calle Estafeta in 1856; today’s layout was settled in 1922; the start moved to 8 o’clock in the morning in 1974; live television broadcasts began in 1982; and this year the Encierro Ordinance was approved, setting the conditions under which the run takes place and creating mechanisms to punish — as minor, serious and very serious — behaviour that is not permitted.

All along, the Encierro has rested on the work of thousands of people and on careful respect for something as attractive as it is dangerous. As this book’s title rightly recognises, “How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona,” the story of the Encierro is also a hard one, mixing joys and victorious moments with black days in our old festival calendar. Since last year’s San Fermín festival, a fence post in the plaza Consistorial has stood as a tribute to the 15 people who have lost their lives on the run, bearing the words “To the fallen of the Encierro.”

With all its sharp edges, beauty, danger and difficulty, the Encierro is now a spectacular event: close to 3,500 runners risk their lives every morning, supported by first-class care along the whole route, while more than 440 accredited journalists send their updates to countries on every continent.

Yet the appeal of the San Fermín fiestas goes beyond the Encierro and does not rest on the legendary run alone. We have eight and a half days full of joy and fun, with a festive programme of more than 400 events — most notably the Chupinazo, the Procession and the dances of the Giants and Big Heads — which underpin the wonderful atmosphere that fills the streets of Pamplona and renews, year after year, the greatness of a long-awaited and heartfelt holiday.

As Mayor of Pamplona, it is a great joy to take part in a book like this — especially one aimed at the English-speaking community — for its commitment to approaching the San Fermín liturgy with respect for Pamplona’s traditions as its roadmap, and for its valuable testimonies from people who, over decades, have learned how to take part in the Encierro with aplomb.

In that spirit, I want to use this foreword to congratulate Alexander Fiske-Harrison on this story, and everyone who took part in the project. I am sure the work will become a great reference for all lovers of the Encierro beyond our borders, and a source of information for anyone who wants to discover the details that have defined, for centuries, the most famous bull-run in the world.

And finally, a tip: if you get the chance to visit, don’t hesitate. Pamplona awaits you with open arms and only two conditions — the desire to have a good time and respect for the city and its traditions. ¡Viva San Fermín!

Don Enrique Maya
Mayor of Pamplona

With thanks to Doña Yolanda Barcina, President of the Government of Navarre, for her assistance. And to His Excellency, Federico Trillo-Figueroa Martínez-Conde, Ambassador from the Kingdom of Spain to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and El Señor Fidel López Álvarez, Minister-Counsellor for Cultural Affairs.