In Mataelpino, there is no shortage of enthusiasm for a party, but there was always a shortage of money to bring in bulls.
So a group of residents, including Russel Sanguino and José Ángel López ‘el Mata’, came up with an idea that sounded like a barroom joke: replace the bulls with a giant ball weighing up to 300 kilos and let it roll down the town’s steep streets while everyone ran in front of it, just like in a real bull run. The Boloencierro was born. This August 2026, during the San Bartolomé festivities, the ball rolled again, but with a new development: the councillor for Festivities, Manuel Alonso, acknowledged that the original size was “too dangerous” for the town’s slopes, so this year they used a lighter version and made helmets mandatory.
What started as a budget shortfall workaround became the main attraction of the San Bartolomé festivities. Today, Mataelpino, with barely 2.000 inhabitants, multiplies its population every August with curious visitors and tourists arriving from all over Spain and even from abroad just to watch the ball roll.