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Jesus Diges / EPA
Thousands of people celebrate the start of the San Fermin Festival 2012 raising their red scarfs after the opening ceremony 'Chupinazo,' which starts, as every year, at midday in the Plaza Consistorial outside the City Hall in Pamplona, Navarra, Spain, on July 6. The fiesta of Sanfermines runs from 06 to 14 July. The festival commemorates St. Fermin, Pamplona's patron saint.
Rafa Rivas / AFP - Getty Images
Participants gather to celebrate the 'Chupinazo' to mark the start at noon sharp of the San Fermin Festival on July 6, in front of the Town Hall of Pamplona, northern Spain. Tens of thousands of people packed Pamplona's streets for a drunken kick-off to Spain's best-known fiesta: the nine-day San Fermin bull-running festival.
Alvaro Barrientos / AP
Australian revelers enjoy as they drink from a small wineskin, in Pamplona, northern Spain, on July 6, to celebrate the start of Spain's most famous bull-running festival with the annual launch of the "chupinazo" rocket. Perhaps best glorified by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises," the San Fermin festival is known around the world for the daily running of the bulls.
Eloy Alonso / Reuters
Revellers celebrate at the start of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona on July 6.The annual festival, best known for its daily running of the bulls, kicked off on Friday with the traditional "Chupinazo" rocket launch and will run until July 14.
Daniel Ochoa de Olza / AP
Revelers take part on the 'Chupinazo', the official opening of the 2012 San Fermin fiestas, Friday, July 6, in Pamplona, Spain. Revelers from around the world kick off the San Fermin festival with a messy party in the Pamplona town square, one day before the first of eight days of the running of the bulls.
AP reports -- PAMPLONA, Spain - Tens of thousands of revelers showered each other with sparkling wine and waved red kerchiefs Friday as the blast of a small rocket signaled the start of this year's running of the bulls.
Spain's most famous summer festival kicked off in the jam-packed and cobblestoned main square of the northern town of Pamplona. People from around the world, many wearing the traditional red kerchief and white shirt and pants, roared their approval as an official on a city hall balcony declared the San Fermin festival under way. He then lit the rocket, its boom echoing through the plaza.
Revelers sprayed each other with white wine, water and other liquids, and pelted each other with flour, making for a pasty but merry mess. Huge plastic balls used to advertise products and services bounced atop the crowd.
Daniel Ochoa de Olza / AP
Revelers are sprayed with water after the 'Chupinazo', the official opening of the 2012 San Fermin fiestas, on July 6, in Pamplona, Spain. Revelers from around the world kick off the San Fermin festival with a messy party in the Pamplona town square, one day before the first of eight days of the running of the bulls.
Ivan Aguinaga / AP
Revelers celebrate during the 'Chupinazo', the official opening of the 2012 San Fermin fiestas, Friday, July 6, in Pamplona, Spain. Revelers from around the world kick off the San Fermin festival with a messy party in the Pamplona town square, one day before the first of eight days of the running of the bulls.
Susana Vera / Reuters
Revelers hold up their red scarves during the start of the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona, on July 6. The annual festival, best known for its daily running of the bulls, kicked off on Friday with the traditional "Chupinazo" rocket launch and will run until July 14.
Ivan Aguinaga) / AP
A musical band march during the 'Chupinazo', the official opening of the 2012 San Fermin fiestas, on July 6, in Pamplona, Spain. Revelers from around the world kick off the San Fermin festival with a messy party in the Pamplona town square, one day before the first of eight days of the running of the bulls.
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Just look at that picture and tell me how are they going to run. Then I'll ask if running is really the best thing to do. If the bulls don't trample them, they'll trample each other.
God must love insane people. He makes so many of them.
for the animal lovers......get real.....everyday kids are abused right here in america, they go to sleep hungry, they don't have homes,beds to sleep in....and you worry about animal rights.......lets set our priorities right, kids have much more feelings and are more important than animals...wake up and worry about the important things........and as for the bulls.....i guess that 90% of you have never stood by a bull 5 foot 6 inches high 1800 to 2000lbs with nice sharp horns to defend themselves.......its not about killing the bull.....its about an old tradition...much older that the history of this county.....its about balls to look them in the eye......there are thinghs that some people will never understand!!!!........bye the way I support 6 foster kids in poor countries...what to you do!!!!
I've never seen a mob like this since Reverend Jim Jones in Guyana.
Unfortunately, their poison grape Kool-Aid was fatal and drunk from a Dixie bathroom cup.
I take it the modern version (as evidenced in the photos above) would best be classified as mass hysteria due to the ingestion of bath salts, potpourri, sherms or PCP. Sherms are cigarettes (or joints) dipped into embalming fluid and usually sold outside raves or concerts.
Yesssssss .... I know this isn't the case here but then agaaaaaaaiiinnnn?
I think much of the opposition to people in syria winning the freedom from the evil dictator are republicans, they supported Gadhafi during the libya war b/c they hated obama and didn't want him to be successful to Gadhafi demise, where no americans lost their lives in the libya conflict, and the war cost a fraction of a penny to the dollar of bush's wars. So the republicans sued obama (which the courts quickly and rightly threw out) in hoping that obama would fail in Libyans winning the freedom and they would be able to use it against him in the up-coming election. Now, it didn't turn out the way the republicans wanted and now they are the ones looking like a fool, supporting a mass murdering dictator over those seeking the freedom