D Magazine intern, Sara Stoltz, spent time living in Spain. Next week she is going to scour Dallas for all things Spanish—wines, food, and events. She begins her week-long series today with a look at the annual Running of the Bulls Celebration and where you can party with the bulls in Dallas.
As tourist brochures and travel articles about Spain will 99.9999 percent of the time be accompanied by some sort of bull picture or cartoon, it’s normal for outsiders to think that the big, cumbersome animal just loiters around the streets in every city, waiting for some brave, tiny Spaniard to don some silly, bright pink leggings and stab it a few hundred times. Or maybe for some dumb American college student to get drunk and fall into the street wherin said bull can then trample him.
But I digress. Anyone who’s been to Spain knows that the streets are typically filled this time of year not with bulls, but with Spaniards and tourists sitting on sweltering terraces and gulping down sangria and cold beers in a vain attempt to stay cool. Oh, and using those silly fans you also see in brochures. (They really do work, people.)
Also, religious festivals, which is where the Running of the Bulls, more properly known as San Fermines, in honor of Pamplona’s patron saint come in. Although the traditional, week-long town festival starts with religious parades featuring giant-headed “cabezuedos” and “kaldikos”, which chase children through the street, here in Dallas you can celebrate a more relaxing way with a party at Cafe Madrid this Saturday, their 20th annual Running of the Bulls celebration.
From 4:00p.m. on, enjoy flamenco music (even though flamenco is from the south, and Pamplona is in the north….but we silly Americans will never know the difference, right?) special drinks and tapas typical to the region, and of course, the requisite man-dressed-as-bull available for pictures. Don’t forget to wear your whites with a red scarf or bandanna, and enter to win a trip to Madrid on American Airlines.
(The celebration will take place at the Knox Street location.)
