Sanji, in what location were you videoing? I might have asked you this before but does the procession come down into La Carihuella?

The video opens being shot with my back to the fountain & looking up the main road which runs through Torremolinos (Avda Palma de Mallorca) where the procession comes along before turning right at the fountain.
On the second scene behind the close-up of the cart carrying the statue of San Miguel Arcangel, you can see the fountain in the background.
The rest of the video was filmed stood on the steps of the Police Station in an area of Torremolinos called El Calvario.
From El Calvario the Romería heads to the pine woods (Los Pinares de los Manantiales) where they all have an allocated spot to unhitch the bulls/cows and get out the food/drink/music and party.
The Romería comes no where near La Carihuela.

I wonder if they are retired from bull fighting and what do they do for the rest of the year

For the rest of the year the bulls are working bulls on farms or they end up on your plate, where eventually they will anyway.
Only men prancing around in pink tights retire from bull fighting. Bulls don't ever retire from bull fighting, they are guaranteed to DIE.

* (with the exception of a handful of bulls in the last 50/100 years which despite all the odds being stacked against them, they have won the fight, those bulls are then in demand to stud the next generation and are left to graze for the rest of their natural lives.)*
Did you see that flying pig? because that's how rare it is for a bull to come out of the ring alive.

Sanji

I didn't think about the odds of the bulls coming out of the fight alive tbh Sanji. Glad you pointed it out. There was talk of banning bull fighting, does it still go on?

From El Calvario the Romería heads to the pine woods (Los Pinares de los Manantiales) where they all have an allocated spot to unhitch the bulls/cows and get out the food/drink/music and party.

Is the party restricted to the participants or do they see food and drink and let the onlookers join in? It's a shame I'll never get to see the Romeria as it's on at a time of year that I'm in work Never mind, I enjoy your videos and can just imagine it all.

There was talk of banning bull fighting, does it still go on?

Unfortunately Yes.
Bullfighting was banned in the Canary Islands in 1991 and a ban comes into force in Catalonia on the 1st January next year, although technically it's all over now because the season has ended.
Madrid and in Andalusia are the bullfighting strongholds and it's a multi-million euro industry, which is being kept alive by subsidies from the EU in the form of farming subsidies, and in some places by the tourists, especially the Americans who do the Grand Tour of Spain and who think they haven't been to Spain unless they see a bullfight.

Discussing bullfighting is a very emotive subject, it's like discussing smoking where the anti-smokers and the smokers are never going to agree, well bullfighting is the same because there are those who are passionate about it, and who think it's tradition and it should be upheld at all costs, and others like myself who could put forward a different view and give as many reasons to ban it and regard it as blatant cruelty.

When there is no middle line to work towards because you've got to be either against it or you're for it, and it's one of those things where you have to sit in either one or the other camp because there can't be half measures"¦.
Any discussion will bring out the worse in people on a number of issues involved with bullfighting, so it's best not to go no further with it because there is no way that I, as a foreigner, will ever break into the psyche of a Spaniard where bullfighting makes up part of their life's blood.
When I'm with my Spanish friends from Getafe in Madrid, I avoid the subject at all costs because they do have a matador in the family whom they are all very proud of, and it makes life very difficult when you value their friendship..

I think it was Ghandi who said that you can judge a nation by the way it treats its animals"¦.. it pains me to say that (imo) the Spanish fail miserably.

Is the party restricted to the participants or do they see food and drink and let the onlookers join in? It's a shame I'll never get to see the Romeria as it's on at a time of year that I'm in work Never mind, I enjoy your videos and can just imagine it all.

If you go into the pinewoods there are stalls and bars set up to buy such things as pop, sweets, crisps, nuts, beer and a plastic plate full of paella, personally I think the prices being charged were a rip off.
They are all in their own little ‘clubs' so no unless you get invited to join them, like any other party you wouldn't gate crash it, but if you can speak Spanish and you get talking to them, you'll find that they are very hospitable people and will offer you a little food/drink and encourage you to join in the fun.

Sanji

PS: Just a thought, maybe this ought to be moved into the chat thread.?

thanks sanji. My first holiday abroad as a child was to la Pineda on the costa Brava but I do have a vague memory of visiting Torremolinos and a bull ring. Just wondering now whether my memory is playing tricks? How far would it be to Torre from the costa Brava? I don't actually think we saw a bullfight but I might be wrong. I was about 9 at the time so I'm sure I would have remembered the occasion. Maybe Helen will remember. Don't worry, I won't discuss the topic of bullfighting in detail.