Dax Fair 2025: Echoes from the bullfighting callejon on Saturday, August 16

Six bulls from El Freixo for Miguel Ángel Perera (one ear and two ears), Daniel Luque (two ears and one ear) and Borja Jiménez (one ear and two ears)

There was no shortage of comments about the previous day's bullfight, postponed until 8 p.m. due to the intense heat, at the time of today's paseo: Pascal Dagès, member of the bullfighting commission and deputy for Dax's festivals, confirmed in the patio that he hadn't enjoyed this "October bullfight," with the light dimming from the start of the third bull. The president of the bullfighting commission, Éric Darrière, clearly loved the evening atmosphere. It just goes to show that the race is postponed by two hours, and some people find it overwhelming. Fortunately, at 6 p.m. on August 16, the light shone right through to the patio de caballos, and then onto the ring, both literally and figuratively. Nine ears is a good way to celebrate an August bullfight.

Rare enough to be worth mentioning, the music of the Nèhe accompanied each of the day's six faenas. Those looking to find out which piece was performed by the band during a bullfight held in the Dax arenas would do well to take a look at the social network Instagram. Once the show was over, the nehe.dax account gave the title and composer of these paso-doble that accompanied the faenas in the most delightful way. We learned that Andrés Roca Rey's triumph over Juan Pedro Domecq's fifth bull was carried by an original creation by Jean Garain entitled "Vida y muerte."

Diversity is the order of the day among the presidencies composed for the various bullfighting shows of this Feria de Dax 2025. During the first four bullfights, and the three morning novilladas, the palco associated a woman and two men… The initiative of the Bullfighting Commission clearly shows that aficion is not a gender, just a passion. Today's presidency, composed of Matthieu Lassalle, Marine Compagne and Florian Durou, also had to endure this passion, sometimes pushed to the unreasonable: copiously booed for having refused a second ear to Miguel Ángel Perera at his first bull, Enemigo, the presidency then had to endure on the following five bulls the wrath of the public, well wound up by this first decision.

When Borja Jiménez toasted his first bull to ex-bullfighter Julian Lopez "El Juli" for the bullfight to present his cattle in Dax, there was no doubt that he, like the rest of the arena, saw a slight resemblance (to say the least) between the owner of the ganaderia of the day and the boy next to him in the callejon. On the other hand, it would be difficult to say which of his twins, Rosario and Fernando, was present at his father's side for this very special moment.