His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain was the guest of honour at the San Isidro Fair in Madrid this weekend, joining thousands of attendees at the annual event organised by the Press Association of Madrid.
King Felipe attended the traditional Corrida de la Prensa on Sunday, the final event of the San Isidro fair and a key highlight of the Spanish bullfighting season. During the event bullfighters Manuel Escribano, Paco Ureña and Emilio de Justo took on bulls from the famous stock of Victorino Martín Andrés as the King watched on from ringside seats at the Las Ventas bullring.
This was the first time that Felipe presided over the corrida as King as the royal is famously less fond of bullfighting then his father, King Emeritus Juan Carlos, and was prevented from attending in 2017 and 2016 due to an official trip to Jordan and a state funeral for victims of an earthquake, respectively.
The monarch was welcomed to the arena with thunderous applause from the crowd, who were clearly glad he had chosen to join them rather than attend the French Open tennis final in which Spaniard Rafael Nadal was competing (and eventually won). King Felipe was joined by the president of the Community of Madrid, Ángel Garrido; the Secretary of State for Communication, Miguel Ángel Oliver; the president of the Press Association of Madrid, Victoria Prego de Oliver; and the bullfighter, Roberto Domínguez.
Originally founded in the old arena of the Puerta de Alcalá on 12 June 1900, in 1995 the San Isidro Fair was moved to take place at the end of May in order to commemorate the date of the constitution of the Press Association.
This year’s celebration was also visited by the King’s father, King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, and his sister, the Infanta Elena, who both attended events at the fair last Wednesday.
