The National Association of Bullfighting Show Organizers (ANOET), the main association of bullfighting companies in Spain, has published a report that ensures that a total of 20,821 celebrations were held in Spain during 2023, of which 8,707 – 41.83 %- were in the Valencian Community.
The vast majority of the national total (85 percent) was organized by municipalities alone or with bullfighting companies, according to the report, which details and breaks down these shows according to their modality, category and geographical area.
In that period, 87 bullfights, 2 comic shows, 398 bullfights, 108 mixed celebrations, 205 festivals, 292 bullfights, 339 without bullfights, 136 bullfighting shows and 19,254 popular celebrations were held.
According to the same document, a total of 2,034 Spanish municipalities celebrated bullfighting festivals, of which three quarters (77 percent) were in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants, which, according to ANOET, shows “the importance of bullfighting in rural environments as a leisure attraction.
By community, the Comunitat Valenciana stands out with 8,707 celebrations celebrated in contrast to Galicia or the Balearic Islands, which celebrated only two or Catalonia’s 396. In Andalusia, for its part, a total of 698 celebrations were recorded in all modalities.
The autonomous community of Andalusia does lead the statistics in the section of bullfights held (88), followed by Madrid (76) and Castilla-La Mancha (57).
The report also segments the celebrations by category of plaza and indicates that a total of 159 are held in first category plazas, 166 in second category plazas and 733 in third category plazas, with 509 celebrations that took place in portable arenas.
As a novelty, the report also focuses on the organizers of the shows and offers the data that 9,093 (43.5 percent) were organized by the City Councils, 3,070 (15 percent) by bullfighting companies and 8,658 (41 percent) .5 percent) by municipalities in association with different companies.