One hour away from Pamplona, you can find Bayonne. This amazing French-Basque city have the second best parties in the BAsque Region.
This year Bayonne will charge for the first time to access the city center during the Bayonne festivities.
One of the big questions here in Pamplona is how we can control how many people can fit in town during San Fermin. You have to understand that we are just 200.000 people in town, and during San Fermin, we go up to 1,5 million. It seams that the city is out of control. This is not right. There is a lot of control in town. But we are realizing that with the new social media exposure, the party is growing and growing.
Is there a limit to this? Bayonne have the same issue and they have come with the idea to charge everybody who access the city center a small fee. Would this idea stop some people to arrive? What do restaurants, bars,etc… will think of this?
Here in Pamplona we are waiting to see how it works and them “maybe” we will start doing this. I personally don´t Think it will work at all. If you cross all the worlds to come to San Fermin, you will pay those 10€ with no problem. I personally think it is just another way for the city hall to make more money.
Here is an article from THE LOCAL talking about this issue. As you can see it is a hot topic around here. We will see what the future brings to us. LOL