Bullfighting, one of Spain's most controversial traditions, is struggling for survival amid lockdown
MADRID - Usually at this time of year Madrid’s Las Ventas bullring is packed as matadors take on lethal half-tonne bulls in daily fights during the annual San Isidro festival.
The shut-down could deal a fatal blow to a controversial spectacle which poet Federico Garcia Lorca once called “the last serious thing”. Local governments have cut funding for fiestas, left-wing politicians oppose it, and a highly vocal anti-bullfight movement has grabbed headlines.Although Spain has started to ease its coronavirus lockdown, it is not clear if any corridas will now take place before the end of the season in October.
FILE PHOTO: Spanish bullfighter Octavio Chacon performs a pass to a bull during the last bullfight of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain, July 14, 2019. REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo Activists have staged regular demonstrations outside plazas - sometimes even daubing themselves with fake blood and lying down naked on the ground. For them, it is a cruel and bloody spectacle which has no place in modern Spain.The Union of Breeders estimates the industry’s losses could exceed 77 million euros if the season is written off.
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