Madrid’s Feria de San Isidro is arguably one of bullfighting’s very few successful promotions. Along with Sevilla’s Easter Sunday corrida, the Andalucian capital’s April feria and Madrid’s Beneficencia corrida (which is in any case incorporated in its programming), the month-long San Isidro attracts mainstream media coverage in a multiplicity of outlets, while its length means it can act as a broad showcase for bullfighting. San Isidro - assisted by Las Ventas’s relatively low ticket prices - also attracts the crowds, poor attendance during the feria being virtually unheard of.

The feria goes back to 1947, when the ring’s empresa, Livino Stuyck, decided to do away with the previous abono arrangement and create an abono purely covering all of Las Ventas’s May festejos. Although this period coincided with the city’s celebration of its patron saint, San Isidro Labrador, the feria was initially named la Feria de Madrid. From its original five corridas, the feria has grown and expanded into June. In 2019, it consisted of no less than 34 festejos, although three of these - la Beneficencia, la Corrida de la Cultura and la Corrida de la Prensa - stood outside the official abono. In fact, Plaza 1, the empresa, provided two choices for abonados - an abono completo, covering 31 festejos, and an abono básico with which the holder had to attend all three novilladas in the series, but could then choose to attend 18 of the 24 corridas and two of the four corridas de rejones.

In discussing the Comunidad de Madrid’s forthcoming contract for Las Ventas (which will be published shortly and will run from June this year once San Isidro has ended), the consejero de Presidencia de Madrid, Enrique López, has commented: “Las Ventas will continue to be a plaza de temporada, operating from March to October, but the San Isidro Feria needs to reduce its activities in order to avoid the fatigue of so many continuous events. We’ll be aiming to encourage quality rather than quantity.”

There are dangers in this approach. In the same way as Silverstone would find it hard to operate to the extent it does without its annual F1 Grand Prix, so bullfighting in Madrid would suffer if Las Ventas’s main feria was to be drastically reduced. The size of takings from a lengthy San Isidro is an important element in enabling the funding of Las Ventas’s season beyond its two annual ferias when spectator attendance can be minimal. San Isidro’s length also means it can cater for toreros modestos as well as the figuras, with minimal impact on ticket sales, and feature minority encastes in addition to the more prolific ganaderías. A triumph in Madrid during the feria can be life-changing.

Aficionados, too, should be wary of a “quality rather than quantity” stance. 2022’s initial feria carteles - together with an apparent wish by the figuras to make up for a loss of earnings over the last two pandemic years - have been built around multiple appearances by the established top matadors. They have even taken over Valdemorillo’s February feria, traditionally a chance for modestos to grab the headlines at the start of a season and stake a claim for further contracts, although Alejandro Marcos has been brought in post-announcement of the carteles to replace an injured Cayetano. Even Gines Marín, who deservedly went out through Las Ventas’s Puerta Grande last autumn, has struggled to gain contracts to date, omitted from Olivenza in his home province of Extremadura as well as Valencia’s shortened Las Fallas. The resultant carteles are variations on what the public has been served up for the last 15 years or more, with equally predictable ganaderías, and give no opportunity for a break-through. Castellón, with its inclusion of both Marín and Tomás Rufo, as well as victorinos, adolfos (for rejoneo) and miuras, is the most interesting-looking abono announced to date.

In practice, no corrida comes with guarantees as to its quality. A cartel of figuras with the more commercial bulls can turn into a crushing disappointment: equally, an event with little-known toreros and toros can become an elevating affair. Furthermore, if Las Ventas is to operate as a true “temple of tauromaquia”, it needs to maintain its approach of featuring a broad spectrum of matadors and ganaderías over the course of a season. A sizable Feria de San Isidro is a key element in ensuring this and the charge of ‘fatigue’ can be answered by giving abono options like Plaza 1 did in 2019. Let us hope that, when the tender is finally published, it sets no limitations on the feria’s size that would place restrictions on what has proved to be a successful format.

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