MADRID, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Spain's famous San Fermin bull-running festival, which is held every year in July in the city of Pamplona in northern Spain, has been canceled due to the coronavirus crisis, the Pamplona City Council confirmed on Wednesday.
The 2020 San Fermin 'fiesta' was due to begin on July 6 and last until July 14.
The decision was announced by the acting Mayor of Pamplona, Ana Elizalde, who has temporarily taken over from Enrique Maya, who is infected with the virus.
San Fermin was made famous by the writer Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises," and the annual celebrations usually attract over a million visitors from all corners of the world over to the city with just over 200,000 inhabitants.
Although the Pamplona City Council spends just over two million euros (2.17 million U.S. dollars) on preparations, San Fermin is calculated to have an economic impact of around 150 million euros, of which over 30 million euros are spent in the city's bars and restaurants by locals and visitors alike.
Elizade said the City Council and representatives of the bar and restaurant sector were "working on a formula to try and generate economic activity and try to partly compensate for the losses than suspending San Fermin will mean."
Other major public festivals in Spain that have fallen victim to the coronavirus are Valencia's "Fallas" celebrations and the "Feria de Abril" in Seville.
Spain has reported 21,282 deaths from 204,179 confirmed coronavirus cases. Enditem
