Spain

Bull fighting in Alicante

We decided to attend a bullfight, although we are not entirely sure we will enjoy it. The culture here is different and we are trying to embrace the culture and immerse ourselves into it. It certainly is not up to us to judge one way or the other the merits of the bullfighting tradition and this blog is not going to debate the issue.

We went online and ordered our tickets which arrived by courier a week before the event.

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Ray with the bullfighting tickets

The day of the event we headed to the Plaza de Toro a little early so we could check out the bull fighting arena.

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crowds of people gather to enter the bull fighting arena

We headed inside the Bull fighting arena and took our time to check out the building. The inside is old and with partly tiled walls and cement features.

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Inside the arena

We walked up the stairs to find our seats. The stairs were uneven with different  riser heights, some were over one-foot high. The seats are basically a board with a rubber finish on top.

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Arena seats with small rubber mats

The view of the arena resembles a gladiator’s arena with an open top.

https://youtu.be/h_1LKSXLA4E

The centre ring area is covered in sand and there were two vehicles on display before the show. It was very hot and there was no shade where we were sitting.  We decided to tour the arena before sitting down in the sun.

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Shelley and Ray at Bull Fighting arena

The start of the event is done with a band walking around the arena playing for each section of the arena.

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Band playing music for the opening of the bull fighting event.

After the band, there is a parade of the matadors and people on horseback. The media is also there taking pictures of the matadors and the crowd cheers and shouts. The atmosphere is similar to a major league baseball game.

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Matadors walking around the arena before the start waving to the crowd.
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Men on horseback leading parade
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Matadors being photographed by reporters
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men on specialized equipped horses.

The bullfighting is not done by a single matador, which is what we thought. There are four or five matadors in the ring and they distract the bull and have it run through their cape. There is one main matador who sets the pace and finishes the bull fight. The crowd is very much apart of the bullfight and sing and cheer.

https://youtu.be/fgKZNNW-NXU

We stayed for about half of the event and then left early. It is not for the faint of heart and it is something we experienced but will not likely go to see again.

“Adios y que tenga un gran dia”