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Published: April 13th 2010
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The venue
Outside the venue The Bullfight - Sevilla - 10th April 2010.
Well what can I say about bull fighting that you already don't know? I'm pretty sure you all know the basics, there's a matador and a bull, and the bull dies right... When I arrived in Spain, thats pretty much all I knew, but after watching a fight, and taking a tour behind the scenes in Madrid's Plaza de Toros Las Ventas, I learned a lot more of the art, skill and the tradition behind the event.
There are 3 matadors that each fight 2 bulls. These bulls are generally 4 - 5 years old, who apparently have lived like kings....According to our tour guide and can weigh up to 500kg+. The matadors have 3 banderilleros (assistants i guess) and 2 picadores on horseback.
I'll write a quick guide to how i saw the fight from my eyes. For those who don't want to know, please stop reading here.
First the band plays a little song to welcome the bull to the ring? The bull then comes charging in and is paraded around the ring a couple of times by the banderilleros and the matador himself. The bull at
The Venue
Panoramic from my seat this stage is full of steam, angry and ready to rip into the people throwing capes in his face. The matador then leads the bull through a series of manouvers with the pink cape, I was informed this was supposed to be artistic, but I didnt see any art it in at all. They guys seemed to be sloppy and the bull ripped the pink cape out of a couple of their hands! Next, the band plays a jingle again and then the picadores enter the ring, this part of it I don't really understand. The horses are blindfolded and padded, they positioned themselves around the ring and the clowns (banderilleros) as I now call them use their pink capes to move the bull towards the horses. The bull then charges the horses and the picadores, using a big spear cut the bull on the back a couple of times then leave the arena. The clowns are then involved again as one of them jumps into the ring with 2 sticks (not sure what they are called), he then gets the bulls attention, starts running at it and just before they clash he stabs them into the back of the
bull, another strange part of the fight that I didnt know about. The matador then uses the pink cape again to get more of a feel for how the bull reacts/moves etc? I could be wrong. He then exchanges his pink cape for the red cape and then leads the bull through a series of manouvers that I thought were a lot more artistic then what he was doing with the pink cape, the audience gets really involved with cheering during this point, however they cheered a lot for the matadors I thought were bad, and the one I thought was good got nothing....anyways, moving along, I did see 1 bull get hold of a matador during this part, the bull launched him I'd say at least 6 feet in the air which really sent the plaza de toros into a buzz, he continued with the fight, wounded, but it was good to see the bull briefly show the matador who was boss. Once the matador believe the bull is tired enough or ready to strike, he then exchanges his sword for another and then gets ready to strike. The matador attempts to drive the blade into the back of
Action shot
This is a clown about to stab the two sticks into the bull the bull which pierces the bull's heart. Some of the matadors were good at doing this, ie getting the blade in first time, another guy had around 12 - 15 attempts at both of his bulls. The clowns then jump in and start waving the pink cape in the bulls face who at this point, sadly falls to the ground, still alive, until a clown then attempts to strike the bull with a small knife in the back of the head to kill the bull.
Now I must admit, watching the first bull die I shed a few tears. The bull started walking away from the clowns before collapsing 25m away. What is my stance on bullfighting now after watching one? I can definitely see the art involved in it, however I think its very cruel, and also upsetting to watch at times. It's definately not for the faint hearted, however I'm glad that I got to see a fight.
Richie
PS. Lysh is glad she didn't go to the bull fight as she would have been one of the other tourists who chose to leave. She much preferred her time at the riverside bar people watching
and relaxing!
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Mario
non-member comment
how is the wheather out there