Nothing new in Granada
If you’re nostalgic for the first decade of this century, Granada’s 2025 feria taurina is the feria for you! It appears that the bullring’s empresas, Casa Matilla, believe that nothing worthwhile has occurred in toreo a pie since 2017, the alternativa year of the ‘youngest’ matador on the carteles, Pablo Aguado.
This blog site has long criticised empresas’ innate conservatism when it comes to constructing carteles, but this year’s Feria del Corpus takes the biscuit. Almost as if they knew how unattractive their feria is, Casa Matilla are hedging their bets on attendance by relying on an ‘in-house’ approach that should keep their costs as low as possible.
The feria boasts two ‘attractions’. The first is the double appearance of El Fandi (managed by Casa Matilla), who has already fought some 121 bulls in Granada’s bullring, to mark the 25th anniversary of his alternativa. On his first afternoon with bulls of Álvaro Núñez, the granadino will share the bill with José María Manzanares (alternativa 2003, another Casa Matilla matador) and Alejandro Talavante (alternativa 2006). His second appearance will be alongside Sebastián Castella (alternativa 2000 and also managed by Casa Matilla) and Miguel Ángel Perera (alternativa 2004) with the feria’s second ‘highlight’ - bulls of Victorino Martín. The remaining corrida features Casa Matilla bulls for Morante de la Puebla (alternativa 1997), Andrés Roca Rey (alternativa 2015) and the aforementioned Aguado. The feria’s corrida de rejones follows a similar model - Andy Cartagena (alternativa 1997) and Diego Ventura (alternativa 1998) will be joined by the granadino Sebastián Fernández (alternativa 2019 - due to be confirmed in this year’s Feria de San Isidro) - with bulls of Ángel Sánchez y Sánchez.
Although there will also be a novillada sin picadores (the participants in which have yet to be announced), one can only feel sorry for the afición of Granada. Despite the portrayal of an alternativa on the cartel, there is nothing new in this year’s feria. There was a time, not so long ago, when the Feria del Corpus featured an additional corrida de toros than those planned for this year, but, with carteles like these, it is hard to see what there is to encourage people to attend the feria, let alone grow it.