Madrid Bullfights

Madrid Bullfights

Bullfighting season is kicking off in Madrid during our San Isidro Patron Saint festivities (from May 8^th to June 10^th) and a lot our customers that join us on our Madrid tapa tours ask us if we recommend them seeing a bullfight in Madrid, and to be honest it’s a difficult question. We are going to show the pro’s and con’s of going to a Madrid bullfight, because it’s not something to be taken lightly because not only the bullfighter’s life is being risked, but also the bulls are almost always killed in a most horrifying way. We will also show you where to get Madrid bullfight tickets, to avoid being over charged or even scammed.

Should I see a bullfight?

The pro’s of going to a bullfight is the chance of witnessing a folkloric “life and death” ritual rooted back in Roman times, in fact some call modern bullfights “the old Roman circus” because as you know, the Romans shed a lot of blood in the Coliseum, not only sacrificing animals by having them fight against each other (bears, lions, crocodiles, hippopotamus etc..), but humans too were sacrificed recreating historical battles, or a full-on gladiator fight, and unlike a normal theater, the actors’ involved fought to their death. Bullfights are similar in that either the bullfighter or the bull wins, evidently, the bullfighter or matadors almost always win. So, if you want to go back in time to see what the ambience of a Roman circus could have been like, then we might recommend attending a Madrid bullfight.

The con’s of going to a bullfight is evident. The animal suffers; there is no doubt about it, in a world where animal cruelty is being less tolerated bullfighting seems rather obsolete. In Portugal for example, the bull is not killed at the end of the fight, but sacrificed afterwards where the crowds do not see it, somewhat metaphorically speaking like the meat you buy in the supermarket. Watching initially the way horsemen stab the bulls with their long lances, picadores running up to the bull’s side and stabbing them with colorful decorative small lances on their backs, leaving blood dripping from the bull’s sides, then finally slaying them with a long curvy sword through the skin, muscles and into the heart, is the most difficult part of a bullfight; it’s rather gruesome witnessing the bull kneel down to his death spewing blood from its mouth; it’s definitely not for everyone.

Where to get Madrid bullfight tickets? Check out the link below to the official Madrid bullfight bull-ring called Ventas (the web-page is in Spanish only, we recommend asking your hotel receptionist to help you out or going to Ventas bull-ring ticket offices):

https://plaza1.janto.es/janto/

Join us on one of our many Madrid tapas tours and see you soon!