The Generalitat will award this year, within the Bullfighting Awards of the Valencian Community, an 'Honorable mention in defense of Bullfighting as cultural heritage', in the face of "the attacks that the bullfighting festival is suffering" with the suppression of the National Bullfighting Award. Bullfighting by the Ministry of Culture.
This was announced this Thursday by the Minister of Justice and the Interior, Elisa Núñez (Vox), who has indicated that the obligation of this Department is to "promote institutional support for this cultural manifestation so deeply rooted in the Valencian Community."
Núñez has highlighted that in the Valencian Community a total of 8,685 bullfighting festivals were held in 2023, half of all the popular bullfighting festivals in Spain, which shows that it is one of the regions in which "the bullfighting festival", in its modalities of both fighting and street bull, is “more rooted in society.”
The Bullfighting Awards of the Valencian Community have been held since 2014, they are awarded biennially, and one of the requirements to be awarded is to contribute to the promotion, defense, encouragement and attention to the bullfighting festival in its different manifestations, according to a statement from the Generalitat.
Among the members of the jury are representatives of the Departments of Culture and Agriculture, bullfighting professionals, the media, companies organizing bullfighting shows, fans, bullfighting schools, and the Commission of Traditional Bullfighting Celebrations (bous al carrer) of the Valencian Community .
The awards have two categories - Prize for bullfighting shows in bullrings and Prize for traditional bullfighting celebrations (bous al carrer) -, they are honorary in nature, as they consist of the delivery of a sculpture as a trophy, and this year they will be awarded before the Valencia July Fair.
On the other hand, the head of Justice and the Interior has highlighted the implementation of a new digital platform so that the organizers of the 'bous al carrer' can submit applications electronically “and thus improve the processing of the organization of these celebrations.”
