Sanfermines slip-proof creates a "windy effect" to prevent falls | Culture

The streets of Pamplona where the bulls run San Fermin they have a particularity Since 2005, between July 1 and July 2, the soil is impregnated with a chemical substance that gives it anti-slip properties. This minimizes the falls of runners and horns to make the journey safer, although this week has been criticized by some participants, who say that the party in Navarre is "losing emotion". Vicente García, 58, is co-owner of the company that conducts this bathroom. "We got a windy effect," he says, between 10,000 and 20,000 euros.

The boredom of the runners with the "absence of emotion" in the races led them to make a sit-in last Thursday, convened through social networks, at different points along the route. Until the sound of the rocket that throws the animals down the street it did not rumble, they did not get up. In addition to the anti-slip effect, they are disappointed by the impossibility of running in front of the bulls, which are tucked in by the trained halters that know the route.

"A chemical reaction with the minerals of the paving stones creates millions of micropores, which, in both dry and wet conditions, make the suction action to avoid slipping," García says. This businessman says that, when they offered this solution to the Pamplona City Council, they did not know that it would also have an effect on the bulls. "The mayor then, Yolanda Barcina, said that this was going to be the revolution."

The coating has a duration of 10 years, although this company renews it every July because the effect loses efficiency due to the passage of cars, pedestrians, and oils. "Our enemy to beat is dirt," says Garcia, who adds that the most important thing is that even with the water with which the workers clean the route, the ground remains safe.

"With this few jokes"

The company that deals with the treatment warns that "there are many conditions that take emotion away from racing". And they list the mass of the party, the younger halters that equal the bulls and also, they assume, the anti-slip. But ditch that the objective is to prevent accidents: "Something we do with our work".

The mayor of the city, Enrique Maya, has come out of the controversy. According to the news agency Europa Press, he has been open to talking with the runners about the development of the running of the bulls. Maya has defended the use of the anti-slip that prevents the bulls from slipping and falling to the ground. Understand that it is something that is working. "I'm not going to change it, because we imagine that it is removed and there are serious pickings, even deaths. I would have a tremendous responsibility, also personal, even criminal; with this, few jokes, "he said.

Of course, the mayor has another sensitivity with the halters. "This subject is something else." He said that everything can be analyzed, but "of course, with great rigor and always prioritizing security." Maya recalled that "the goal of the bullfight is for the bull to arrive at the bullring with the greatest possible spectacle within the greatest possible security. "