Spain's San Fermin street bull run festival kicks off Wednes

MADRID, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Midday on Wednesday saw the start of nine days of festivities in the town of Pamplona in northern Spain as the San Fermin Fiestas got underway.

San Fermin is known for its run of the bulls, where every morning thousands wait, dressed in white with a red handkerchief to risk their lives running along the six fighting bulls which will later die in the afternoon bullfight.

The festival officially began when an 83-year-old local man, chosen by popular vote, fired a rocket into the sky from the Pamplona town hall in front of a packed main square.

The San Fermin fiestas were made famous by the author Ernest Hemingway in his novel "Fiesta -- The Sun Also Rises" in the 1920s.

The bull runs last for around two chaotic minutes as runners try to show their courage by keeping alongside one of the 600 kg beasts for 10 or 20 meters.

The population of Pamplona quadruples from around 250,000 inhabitants to around a million for the fiesta. Some 3,500 local and regional police will oversee the celebrations.

The celebrations also see over 400 cultural acts, 80 of which are for children and families, costing the local authority almost 2 million euros (around 2.2 million U.S. dollars).