Toro de la Vega tournament
The "Toro de la Vega" is a medieval bull festival celebrated in the town of Tordesillas (province of Valladolid, Spain). The tournament consists of – depending on the sources – the fight, hunt, or chase of a bull by hundreds of lancers, in which some of these will try to lance the bull to death, after it has been released through the streets of the town and led to an open field by the runners and participants. If the bull surpasses the limits of the tournament, or the lancers are not able to kill it, it will be 'pardoned'. The festival is celebrated yearly depending on the date of the Virgen de la Peña festivity (September 8). In recent years, this festival has acquired increasing notoriety as a result of the protests against it, which denounce the cruelty and suffering to which the bull is subjected, as well as the negative picture of the town and the whole country created by the survival of this tradition in the 21st century.