Madrid’s Feria de Otoño - for abonados only?
Aficionados who live outside Spain and were perhaps hoping to attend part of Madrid’s forthcoming Feria de Otoño will have been concerned at the recent reports that the sale of tickets for single festejos in the feria may not occur because of the amount of interest being shown in acquiring abonos.
The exceptional level of interest in purchasing season tickets for the whole feria has come about because of the contracting of Morante de la Puebla for the October 12 corrida, the sevillano’s first appearance in the capital since his historic ‘retirement’ performance there on the same date last year. Although advertised as being ‘fuera de abono’, this corrida marking el Día de la Hispanidad is, in fact, included in the empresa Plaza 1’s ‘abono total’ for the feria. An alternative season ticket, the ‘abono básico’, permits the holder to attend one novillada and three corridas of their choosing, but does not extend to the October 12 corrida.
Another reason behind the interest in buying abonos is the growing disparity between the price of acquiring an abono at Las Ventas and the cost of seats purchased singly. From the 2023 temporada, Plaza 1 opted to protect the Las Ventas abonados from substantial price rises and to concentrate price increases on non-season ticket holders purchasing festejos individually. This year’s Feria de Otoño ‘abono total’, covering all seven main festejos and granting free access to the final of the sin picadores ‘Camino hacia Las Ventas’, could be acquired for as little as €31. The ‘abono total’ price for a Fila 1 seat in Sol is €227; in Sol y Sombra €364; and €548 for a similar seat in Sombra. The abono price for a tendido alto seat in Sombra is €222 euros, while half-way up the tendido (Fila 12) would cost you €328. As mundotoro.com has pointed out, “That’s to say, for the price of two barrera seats at many of this summer’s ferias, you could acquire an abono in Sombra for the whole of the Feria de Otoño.” Another way of looking at these prices is that a Fila 1 abono in Sol or Sombra covering the seven feria festejos equates to the cost of just over three similar corrida tickets for the feria bought singly; while the €364 Sol y Sombra price wouldn’t even get you in to a third corrida if tickets were bought individually. Broadly, if you wanted to go to at least four of the Otoño events, it would be cheaper to buy an abono.
If there are any to be had, single tickets will go on sale on the Las Ventas website from midnight on September 16 (11pm here in the UK).
‘La Central’, shown here, was one of the several reventa booths that used to be placed outside Las Ventas
With the bulk of the plaza tickets being purchased on an abono basis, one wonders how unwanted abono tickets for individual festejos will be disposed of (strictly speaking, once purchased, they are not for sale to other people). In the old days, the front area outside Las Ventas used to be the site for a number of reventa ticket booths selling entradas with a 20% mark-up - indeed, there was an ‘official’ and an ‘unofficial’ reventa, the plaza empresa having a direct interest in the former - but these have disappeared in recent years. It is likely, then, that unwanted tickets will be disposed of largely via relatives and friends, but with a number falling into the hands of touts out to make a profit.
All is not completely lost, however. The authors of the recent reports appear to have forgotten that, under Spain’s taurine regulations, for each festejo, the empresa must retain 5% of available tickets for sale from the plaza taquilla on the morning of the event. At Las Ventas, this equates to 1,148 seats.
I can recall a September trip I made to a number of bullrings in 2009 when attempts to reserve tickets at Albacete by writing to the plaza had proved fruitless. Of my two corridas there, the first featured Morante de la Puebla (albeit not at a time when he was as popular as now) and the second José Tomás. With no guarantee of an entrada, I opted to travel to Albacete in any case. I arrived on the afternoon of the first corrida, when I was able to buy a Palco seat for that day’s festejo from the taquilla. However, the only option for a ticket for the second corrida was to queue for one of the 5% allocation the following morning. I duly arrived early at the plaza and experienced the Spanish system of queuing (someone comes up behind you, taps you on the back and says, “I’m behind you,” and disappears off for breakfast!) - a potential recipe for chaos later on when the taquilla opens. I was also concerned that the 5% might only consist of tickets up in the gods like the one I’d bought the previous day. But, to my relief, when the taquilla was open and I reached the front of the queue, I was able to buy a Sol Tendido ticket which gave me an excellent spot from which to view and photograph the corrida. It ended up being a long day, for there was a morning novillada in the plaza that same day too!
Natural from José Tomás (Albacete, 2009)