“The feria isn’t lacking any torero - everybody’s in it,” said Simon Casas at the gala launch of this year’s Feria de San Isidro - a statement from the empresario that the likes of Curro Díaz, El Cid, Joselito Adame, Javier Cortés, JoaquIn Galdós, Fortes, Manuel Diosleguarde, Octavio Chacón, Sergio Serrano and Rubén Pinar, to name a few, would probably take exception to.

Yet this, on paper, is a far better feria than the 2023 series with its over-heavy reliance on figuras. Yes, there are still errors - can anyone really justify the four afternoons awarded to Alejandro Talavante (managed, of course, by Casas)? - but, overall, San Isidro 2024 features a wider list of toreros and a more diverse selection of ganaderías than last year’s affair. Despite the veedor Florito’s reported worries about this year’s bulls, torista aficionados will be pleased to see Baltasar Ibán, La Quinta, Miura, Pedraza de Yeltes, José Escolar, Victorino and Adolfo Martín amongst the carteles.

There have been widely different treatments of last year’s Madrid triunfadores. Borja Jiménez has been awarded three afternoons, two with ‘commercial’ ganaderías and a particularly tasty victorinada mano a mano with Paco Ureña (back in favour with the Madrid empresa, the murciano is also appearing in three festejos). Fernando Adrián, on the other hand, has apparently only crept onto the carteles at the insistence of Madrid’s Centro de Asuntos Taurinos, the matador with two consecutive Puerta Grande performances from last year being given a single slot in the Corrida de Beneficencia, taking up the position originally being reserved for the triunfador of this year’s feria!

This has made a nonsense of the Beneficencia, which traditionally has played a role in rewarding the triunfadors of San Isidro, but this year is already made up of Morante de la Puebla, Sebastián Castella and Adrián. The Corrida In Memoriam (also fuera de abono) continues for another year, Manzanares, Talavante and Ureña appearing supposedly in honour of Antoñete, when really the festejo is just an excuse for the empresa to charge extremely high ticket prices on a par with those for the Beneficencia.

There are no alternativas within the feria this time, but there are five welcome confirmaciones - of García Pulido, Alejandro Fermín, Jorge Martínez, Cristian Parejo and Víctor Hernández - the newcomers sharing the bill with figuras. Last year’s alternativa recipient, Álvaro Alarcón, who only had one other corrida in the rest of the temporada, returns to Las Ventas too.

The feria’s novilladas include appearances by Nek Romero, Samuel Navalón, Alejandro Peñaranda, Jarocho and Alejandro Chicharro.

San Isidro is somewhat light on extranjeros this year, particularly after Casas’s Mexican backers weighed in with a number of placements in 2023. This time, Mexico is represented by Leo Valadez, Calita and Isaac Fonseca; France by Castella, Juan Leal and Lalo de María; Colombia by Juan de Castilla; Venezuela by Jesús Enrique Colombo; and Peru by Andrés Roca Rey.

For those aficionados eager to see some competition between the toreros, in addition to the June 5 victorinada, I would suggest the corridas of May 12 (Calita, Francisco de Manuel and Álvaro Alarcón with bulls of Baltasar Ibán), May 17 (Miguel Ángel Perera, Emilio de Justo and Ginés Marín with bulls of La Quinta), May 22 (David Galván, Álvaro Lorenzo and Ángel Téllez with bulls of El Torero), May 23 (Alejandro Talavante, Juan Ortega and Tomás Rufo with bulls of El Puerto de San Lorenzo), June 6 (Antonio Ferrera, Manuel Escribano and José Garrido with bulls of Adolfo Martín) and June 7 (Emilio de Justo, Andrés Roca Rey and Borja Jiménez with bulls of Victoriano del Río).

All in all, San Isidro has been restored to its diverse and interesting self. Every afternoon will be shown live by the pay-view streaming channel OneToro, whilst the free-to-view television and streaming channel TeleMadrid is hopeful of being able to show some of the festejos too.