The Running of the Bulls (in Spanish, el encierro - literally, "the enclosing" or also la pamplonada after the town). It involves running in front of bulls that have been let loose on a course of a sectioned-off subset of a town's streets. The most famous running of the bulls is that of the nine-day festival of San FermÃn in Pamplona, although they are held in towns and villages across Spain during the fiesta season, usually in the run-up to the corrida, or bull-fight, and in some cities in southern France, most notably Bayonne. Unlike bull fights, which are performed by professionals, anyone may participate in an encierro, and there is never violence towards the bulls — even tail-pulling is frowned upon. Injuries are common, both to the participants who may be gored or trampled, and to the bulls, whose hooves grip poorly on the paved or cobbled street surfaces.
