People dance and dodge a giant paper-mache bull stuffed with fireworks as roman candles and bottle rockets shower them with sparks, during the annual festival honoring Saint John of God, in Tultepec, Mexico, Friday, March 8, 2024. The celebration, now its 35th year, pays homage to the patron saint of the poor and sick, St. John of God, who the fireworks' producers view as a protective figure.
The crowd packed into the field saw a mix of moments, with some running from angry fire-spitting bulls, like a pyrotechnic version of the running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, Spain. But the festivities are also a way for the town of Tultepec, just north of Mexico City, to keep their craft alive and draw people to the town after a massive, devastating explosion at the workshops in 2018 killed 25 people and wounded twice that number.
But the big, standing bulls of Tultepec mark the high point of the year. Tultepec was one of the first places that began to produce gunpowder in Mexico during the colonial period, because of the town’s abundant supply of saltpeter, a key ingredient. Today, the town is affectionally known as “the capital of pyrotechnics.”
In the background, a giant bull with colorful pre-Hispanic decorations shined under the sun, where a group of young artisans were busy with the final touches. Once the bull was finished, they had to secure a base on top of it, to hold approximately 1,000 fireworks that exploded when they were lit during the festival.
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