PDare to suit your suitcases in the rental apartment in the early morning and survey the streets to smell the pending festive atmosphere. At noon tapping, this Sunday, July 6, the announcing rocket will cross the Pamplona sky to kick off the sacrosancts of the San FerminN: Nine days of non-stop jubilation, until July 14 at midnight. Mikel Amilibia cherishes these hours preceding Chupinazo (1). “It’s an incredible moment!” Without doubt the most beautiful of all… ”The forties will take the road towards the south with Roger Auerre and Benjamin Garmetia. The three friends of Arcangues will join a handful of other friends on site. “We’ve been doing this for twenty years,” said Benjamin Garmetia. And nothing could stop them. Not even this other cluster of days surrounded by red felt, on the calendar.
The Bayonne festivals were put forward this year at the start of the summer: from July 9 to 13, two weeks before its “natural” dates. The option, tested in 2024, made it possible to reduce the flow of festayres by 15 %. Which prompted the municipality to renew the experience. The town hall announced very early in October, its positioning in the summer calendar. That evening, the Whatsapp group “San Fermín”, shared by the Arrangoiztar, is overheating. “We were disgusted!” “, Related Mikel. The acolytes understand that Bayonne will tie his red scarf on the 4th day of the Pamplona holidays, to remind it one day before the Navarraise capital. Those who plan to miss any of the two events have a tight timing before them.
Costaud program
Never mind: Mikel, Roger and Benjamin are starting to do their calculations. They will go well “from Pamplona to Bayonne”, as the song says (2). “The biggest pilgrimage of the festayres of all time” (2), but in the time-trial version. Because our three weddings have “obligations”, on the edges of Nive. “One day we break the crust with friends, another with colleagues, we also find our companions and our children for an aperitif,” says Roger. Mikel is a member of the Peña or Konpon. As such, he is responsible for commenting on the microphone the world omelette championship with peppers (Wednesday July 9 from 9:30 a.m.) and, a few hours later, the Master of the holidays (at 7:30 p.m.). “It looks strong, as a program, but we manage ourselves,” he says. We are no longer 20 years old! We take advantage of the holidays during the day and we no longer hang out too much at night … “This was not always the case.
Benjamin remembers the first trips to Pamplona. After a sleepless night and a few hours of rest – folded in four in a car parked in a transformed college courtyard, the holiday season, in “parking lots of the French” – you must already hit the road. “Over time, following older friends than us, we have learned what the San Fermín was really,” says the 42 -year -old insurance agent. The band of friends discovers what makes the “beautiful party”: the moving dance of the giants who represent the kings of the earth (every day at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm), the noisy and happy parade of the Peñas who go to the arenas (every day around 5.30 pm) or the Chupinazo on the town hall square, among the Australian, New Zealand or American.
Feeling of lack
The game is to make a pass in the crowd, rather young, immense, compact and excited. Then to let yourself be carried without losing ground by large scarlet waves which wander you on a small square of bitumen, transformed into a navel of the world. Mikel, Roger and Benjamin have an unstoppable technique to find themselves right in the middle of the square, at the forefront to see the Txistularis and Gaiteros come out by the porch of the Town Hall. “One of our friends knows how to find their way in this black place in people just by positioning us compared to certain windows of buildings,” explains Benjamin.
“It’s fire, in the middle of the day. A magical moment, he insists. However, we would never give up the Bayonne celebrations. These are very different atmospheres. Here, we come across friends that we haven’t seen for twenty years, we take our children to awaken King Leon, see choirs, the Bandas parade… “
Roger has the impression of discovering something new with each edition. “I started the Bayonne celebrations in 1998, but I was behind the counter of a bar. I stayed there for twenty years, before moving on the other side, at the age of 40, “said the one who has 48 today.” To chain the two festivals does not scare us, “he continues. On the other hand, what will we do with the rest of our summer? We already apprehend a feeling of lack. »»
(1) The name given to the opening ceremony of the San Fermín.
(2) “I will go from Pamplona to Bayonne” is an emblematic title of the group Les Pilgrins de Navarre.
