Over the weekend a video started making its round via social media of a bullfight that took place in Kuwait back in 1972. The video was fairly low quality and the audio was completely broken so I did a bit of research and turns out the original video is actually owned by Reuters and you can watch the longer and much better version on their website.
According to Reuters, the bulls were imported from Spain for this event which was the first ever bullfighting show in Kuwait. The video is from the show that took place on Thursday April 6, 1972 but there were two other shows that took place on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th of April. Below are some more details:
A Spanish bull faced Spanish matadors in Kuwait on Thursday. It was the first time the Arabian Gulf state has seen a bull-fight. The event was organized by the Salmiya Sports Club and sponsored by the Kuwaiti Minister of the Interior and Defence, Shaikh Sa’ad Al-Abdalla As-Sabah.
A large crowd of spectators packed into the arena to see the novel exhibition of bullfighting skills and physical courage. Among those watching were the Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly and other Assembly members. The event was much enjoyed by the spectators.
Aficionados in Spain may know more about the technicalities, but in Kuwait the crowd understood well enough the perfect judgment needed to plant these darts in just the right place.
The show had opened with the playing of the Kuwaiti and Spanish national anthems and the grand entrance of all the bullfighters. There was no doubting the success of this first bullfighting spectacle in Kuwait. Other shows were scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
So if you want to watch the video, click here.
8 replies on “First Bull-Fighting Staged In Kuwait Draws Large, Enthusiastic Crowds. 1972”
Glad this wasn’t an ongoing tradition here.
they just call it “oil and gas” now
LOL what on Earth?
Regardless of the morals of staging something like this… it’s still pretty impressive they managed to bring it all here
As if we don’t have enough animal torture and abuse. I hope no one gets any ideas from this.
I work for Reuters and looked up old Kuwait footage in our media database after I saw this post. So much great content I know you’d love to see.
how can i go through the content???
Ideally you’d need to subscribe to Reuters Connect (https://agency.reuters.com/en/reuters-connect.html) but looks like you’d have to either work here or at an agency/media house.