Running of the Bulls New Orleans | San Fermin in Nueva Orleans 2026
San Fermín in Nueva Orleans
The Running of the Bulls, New Orleans style — where the bulls wear roller skates and carry plastic bats.
The Short Version
Every July, thousands of people in white shirts and red scarves gather downtown at dawn and get chased through the streets of the Central Business District by roller derby skaters wearing horned helmets and swinging plastic wiffle-ball bats. This is San Fermín in Nueva Orleans — the city’s loving, absurd homage to Pamplona’s famous bull run, with “roller bulls” standing in for livestock.
It started in 2007 with about 200 runners and 14 roller girls. It has since grown into one of the biggest events of the New Orleans summer — reports put recent editions at over 14,000 runners and roughly 400 roller bulls drawn from derby leagues across the country and beyond. 2026 marks the 20th edition.
Getting swatted is the point. You will be swatted. It is, by all accounts, an honor.
El Encierro — The Run Itself
The run is early for a reason: July in New Orleans is no joke, and by 10 AM the streets are a skillet. Go early, hydrate like it’s your job, and be done before the heat peaks — the run itself is over well before mid-morning.
Registration for runners opens through the festival’s official site (nolabulls.com); past editions have supported local charities, including groups helping women fighting cancer and animal rescues. Check the official page for this year’s beneficiaries and entry details.
How to Dress
The uniform is the same as Pamplona’s: all white, with red at the neck and waist. A sea of white and red flooding Poydras-adjacent streets at dawn is half the spectacle. Shoes you can actually run in are strongly advised — the bulls are on quad skates and they are faster than you.
The Whole Weekend
The opening ceremonies — the festival’s official kickoff, modeled on Pamplona’s rocket-launch opening.
The run at 8 AM, followed by the after-party — the “pants party” — with food, drinks, prizes, and a Hemingway look-alike contest that must be seen to be believed.
“Poor me” — the mock-mournful closing ceremony, because the bulls have skated away for another year.
After the Run — Recover in Mid-City
By the time the last bat lands, it’s mid-morning and you’re a sweat-soaked hero in a swatted white shirt. The move: hop the Canal streetcar (the 47 or 48 lines run from the CBD straight up Canal Street) and ride to Mid-City.
We’re Witches Brew Coffee Co. at 2940 Canal St — open 8 AM–6 PM every day, with a covered patio, parking in the rear, and the coldest possible counterprogramming to a July morning spent running from roller derby: iced yaupon tea (America’s native caffeine), nitro matcha on tap, cold brew, and a proper loose-leaf tea apothecary. Half a percent of every coffee sale goes to a local neonatal kitten rescue, so your recovery round does a small good deed too.
Not running? Sleep in, then come judge everyone’s scarf tans from our patio around ten.