Toro de la Vega

[1][2] The tournament consists of hundreds of lancers chasing – either by foot or on horseback – a bull through town streets, corralling it into an open area.

The festival has faced legal challenges from animal rights activists since the early 2010s, leading to a regional ban in 2016 and a ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2019 outlawing the killing of bulls as part of the tournament.

Since its initial regional ban, the festival has removed the killing portion of the ritual and billed itself as the Toro de la Peña (Bull of [Virgin Mary]).

[5] In 1964, Franco sent soldiers to the town in an attempt to stop the festival but a bull was still released; the two lancers who claimed victory in that year's Toro de la Vega were imprisoned and beaten.

[5] In September 2015, during the annual festivities, more than 10,000 locals protested against the Toro de la Vega in Madrid's Puerta del Sol.

[5] That year a variety of Spanish actors and musicians attended an "alternative and bloodless" bull run in Tordesillas to support animal rights activism.

[12][4] In March 2019, the Spanish Supreme Court upheld a lawsuit by animal rights activists in Madrid, effectively banning public bull-killing.

"[2] The tournament consists of hundreds of lancers chasing – either by foot or on horseback – a bull through town streets, corralling it into an open area such as a meadow.

[14] The historical name of the tournament is Toro de la Vega, Spanish for "bull of the meadow"; the namesake of the regional geography of Tordesillas.