Tonight we go to the north of Spain, to Pamplona, for the most famous street festival in the world: San Fermín. For nine days in July the whole city dresses in white and red, and every morning six bulls run through the streets, with hundreds of people running in front of them.
Learn from Songs · Festivals: Summer in Spain · Part 2 of 4 · B1–B2
San Fermín: The Lonely Bull
Part 2: San Fermín in Pamplona, 6 to 14 July, with the rocket, the white and red clothes, and the famous running of the bulls, and the arguments around it. Must, mustn’t, have to, don’t have to and be allowed to for rules and safety, time clauses (as soon as the rocket goes off…), and the language of tradition and controversy, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos, Demetria and a trumpet instrumental, Herb Alpert’s “The Lonely Bull”.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Running in front of bulls? That’s crazy!
SOPHIA
Many people think so, Marcos, and many others love it. Tonight’s music has no words: it’s a trumpet piece called “The Lonely Bull”. Listen, and you can almost hear the crowd shouting “¡Olé!”
PHILO
A festival people love and people criticise. We will listen to both.
Before you listen: the song
Pamplona, 6–14 July
San Fermín is the patron saint of Navarre. According to tradition he was the first bishop of Pamplona and died as a martyr; the red scarves people wear are said to recall his death. The festival begins at noon on 6 July with the chupinazo, a rocket fired from the balcony of the town hall, when thousands of people in the square tie on their red scarves. It ends at midnight on 14 July with everyone singing the sad song “Pobre de mí” (“Poor me”) by candlelight.
Every morning at eight o’clock, the encierro (running of the bulls) takes place: six fighting bulls and some steers run about 850 metres through the old town to the bullring, in two or three minutes. Before it, the runners sing a short prayer to the saint three times. The rules are strict: runners must be over eighteen, they mustn’t be drunk, they are not allowed to run backwards towards the bulls or carry cameras, and they don’t have to run the whole way. Every year people are injured, and since records began in 1910, sixteen people have been killed.
Two views: for many Navarrese the festival is a deep part of their identity, faith and history, and it brings visitors from all over the world. Others, including many Spaniards, criticise the danger and, above all, the fact that the bulls are killed in the bullring in the afternoon. Our music: “The Lonely Bull” (1962) was the first hit for the American trumpeter Herb Alpert and his band, the Tijuana Brass, inspired by a bullfight he saw in Tijuana, Mexico.
Every tradition deserves to be understood, and every tradition can be questioned.
Listen: the lonely bull
PHILO
Listen to Herb Alpert. Which instrument plays the melody? What sounds can you hear in the background? Is the music happy, proud or sad?
SOPHIA
Imagine the streets of Pamplona at eight in the morning. Then answer Section A.
🐂 Listen to the song: “The Lonely Bull” (Sol Lake, 1962), by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (instrumental).Find the recording →
Rules: must, mustn’t, have to, don’t have to
MARCOS
Runners must be over eighteen. You mustn’t run backwards. You have to leave the street before the rocket. You don’t have to run the whole way.
SOPHIA
must / have to = it is necessary. mustn’t = it is forbidden. don’t have to = it isn’t necessary (you can choose). Careful: mustn’t and don’t have to are very different!
Be allowed to, can and can’t
DEMETRIA
You are allowed to watch from a balcony. You aren’t allowed to carry a camera. You can’t touch the bulls. Are children allowed to run? No, they aren’t.
SOPHIA
be allowed to = have permission, in any tense: was / were allowed to, will be allowed to. can / can’t is more informal.
Time clauses
PHILO
As soon as the rocket goes off, the bulls run. When the runners reach the bullring, the doors close. Until the second rocket sounds, the bulls are still in the street.
SOPHIA
After when, as soon as, until, before, after we use the present for the future. Festival words: a rocket, a scarf, a sash, a bullring, a runner, a steer, a horn, to be gored, the crowd.
Sophia’s comparison: the Apis bull, and the bull-leapers
PHILO
Up the Nile at Memphis lives the sacred Apis bull, and when he is led out on his feast days, the crowds rush to see him and the children run in front of him for luck. People have always been drawn to the power of a bull.
SOPHIA
And long ago on Crete, the young men and women of Knossos leapt over the horns of charging bulls, as their paintings still show. Courage, danger and the bull: a very old story.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| must / have to | it is necessary | Runners must be over eighteen. |
| mustn’t | it is forbidden | You mustn’t run backwards. |
| don’t have to | it isn’t necessary | You don’t have to run the whole way. |
| be (not) allowed to | permission | You aren’t allowed to carry a camera. |
| as soon as / when / until + present | time clauses about the future | As soon as the rocket goes off, the bulls run. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. When does San Fermín begin?
2. What colours do people wear?
3. How long is the run?
4. Which of these is NOT allowed?
5. What do people sing at the end?
6. What inspired “The Lonely Bull”?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. Runners be over eighteen. (necessary)
8. You run backwards. (forbidden)
9. You don’t to run the whole way.
10. You aren’t to carry a camera.
11. As soon as the rocket off, the bulls run. (go)
12. Children aren’t allowed run.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “You mustn’t run the whole way.” (meaning: it isn’t necessary)
14. “Runners must be over eighteen.”
15. “As soon as the rocket will go off, the bulls run.”
16. “You aren’t allowed to carry a camera.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Safety briefing. In groups, write the rules for a festival in your town (it doesn’t have to be dangerous!) using must, mustn’t, have to, don’t have to and be allowed to.
Discuss. 1. Should the running of the bulls continue? Give arguments on both sides. 2. Why do people take risks at festivals? 3. Which festival in your country is famous abroad?
Write (120–150 words). A guide for visitors to San Fermín. Explain what happens and the rules, using modals of obligation, be allowed to and time clauses.
Now play the gamebook: the festival of the Apis bull, a crowded street, and a bull that breaks loose.Play the gamebook →