Bulls in El Puerto: The Best Summer Plan

It is, surely, the only summer bullfighting season still celebrated. And certainly, the one with the most tradition and prestige of all that have existed. Watching bullfights in El Puerto de Santa María goes beyond the spectacle itself. It means enjoying the summer and holidays doing what one loves most: Watching bullfights. And moreover, it means doing so in one of the most beautiful bullrings that exist, where the fans who attend have another highly recommended and closely related axiom: Watching bullfighting.

Therefore, the posters for the El Puerto season are composed with sensitivity, catering to the tastes and criteria of the people who occupy the seats of the Plaza Real. In 2024, Carlos Zúñiga, as the visible head of the company Circuitos Taurinos, has crafted a season based on three names that structure the program: Morante de la Puebla, Pablo Aguado, and the rejoneador Diego Ventura.

All three are announced for two evenings each in the six posters that make up a season that will take place over three consecutive weekends. The inaugural poster brings together Aguado and Ventura along with Talavante. A high-level start, with bulls from El Parralejo, on Saturday, July 27. The next day, it’s the turn of the younger ones: Manuel Román and Marco Pérez, two of the most fashionable novilleros, will alternate with Gonzalo Capdevila, one of the local promises, to fight young bulls from Núñez del Cuvillo.

The weekend of August 3 and 4 is also full of attractions: on Saturday the 3rd, a bullfighting legend says goodbye to the El Puerto ring: Enrique Ponce. The maestro from Chiva will make his last appearance in the Plaza Real alongside Daniel Luque, one of the bullfighters of the moment, who has experienced both sides of bullfighting in this ring, and the revelation of the last San Isidro: David Galván, who will fight bulls from Garcigrande.

On Sunday the 4th, Morante de la Puebla, Roca Rey, and Ginés Marín are announced, surely the most complete poster of the entire program and one of the most attractive, as it is the only appearance in the subscription of the Peruvian bullfighter, the top figure of current bullfighting, along with the greatest idol of the local fans, Morante de la Puebla, and the novelty of Ginés Marín, one of the pillars of the new generation. The bulls, from Núñez del Cuvillo.

The last weekend opens with the rejones festival, to be held on Friday the 9th in the evening. Andy Cartagena, Léa Vicens, and again Diego Ventura, the number 1 of the current equestrian ranking, will fight Portuguese bulls from Guiomar Cortés de Moura. On Saturday the 10th, with cattle from Jandilla and El Freixo, the season closes with another event of extraordinary importance: Morante de la Puebla, José María Manzanares, and Pablo Aguado, or in other words, art as the standard. The best way to close a subscription in a bullring where, as Gallito said, those who haven’t seen bulls there… don’t know what a bullfighting day is…