Tourada à corda on Terceira: what a rope bullfight is, when it happens, and how to watch safely

If you are on Terceira between May and October, there is a good chance a bull will run down a village street somewhere on the island that evening. The tourada à corda is Terceira's own tradition: a bull on a long rope, a street full of people, and nobody in a costume except the men holding the rope. Visitors usually want to know three things: is it cruel, is it safe to watch, and how do you find one. This guide covers what happens, the rules that govern it, where to stand, and how the June festival in Angra, the Sanjoaninas, fits in.

A tourada à corda is a street event, free to watch, usually organised by a village festival committee. Four bulls of the Azorean fighting breed, each at least three years old, are run one after another along a stretch of road. Each bull has a rope tied round its neck, and a team of handlers called pastores holds the other end and pulls the animal back when it reaches the limit of the course.

Anyone in the street can provoke the bull and then run. Those who do it are called capinhas, and many use an open umbrella or a jacket as a cape. Nobody is paid to do this. The bull is not killed: its horns are capped with leather or metal balls, and after the event it goes back to its breeder. The first recorded tourada à corda on the island dates from 1622.

The regional law on touradas à corda (Decreto Legislativo Regional 37/2008/A, republished with its amendments in 2023) sets out most of what you will see:

• The season runs from 1 May to 15 October.
• From May to August a tourada may start between 16:00 and 18:30; from September to mid-October between 16:00 and 18:00. The exact time is fixed in each licence.
• Four bulls are run, and the whole event lasts at most three hours. Each bull stays out for between 15 and 30 minutes.
• The course is no longer than 500 metres, and its ends are marked on the road with three white lines 5 metres apart.
• The rope is 90 to 95 metres long.
• There are at least seven pastores: three in the middle of the rope and four at the end. They must be 18 or older and wear the traditional clothes of a black felt hat, a white shirt, and black or grey trousers.
• One rocket announces that a bull is out; two rockets, or a rocket with a double report, mean it is back in its box.
• A bull that has run may not run again for eight days.

Between bulls there is a pause while the next animal is prepared, and the food and drink stalls do their business.

The rope limits where the bull can go along the road, but not across it. A bull on 90 metres of rope can reach any doorway, wall or car on the course. What protects spectators is height and a solid barrier.

• Find a place above street level before the first rocket. Locals stand on garden walls, on steps and on balconies, and houses along the course often cover their walls and balconies with wooden boards so the bull cannot hook anyone. If you are invited up onto a wall, accept.
• Stay off the open road on the course. The three white lines mark its ends: the bull is held back at the first, and the gap between the second and third is kept for police and ambulance vehicles.
• Watch the rope, not only the bull. When the bull turns, the rope moves across the road with it. In a two-year study at Terceira's hospital (2018 and 2019), 56 people were admitted to the emergency department after touradas à corda, and a third of them had been hurt in falls while escaping the rope or handling it, not by the animal.
• Do not try to be a capinha. The other two thirds of the injuries in that study came from direct contact with the bull.
• Keep children on a wall or behind a closed gate, and with you, for the whole time a bull is out.
• Park well outside the course. The law bans parking on the course while the tourada is on, and the road will be closed.

Arrive early. The good spots on walls fill well before the first rocket.

There is no single official calendar. Each tourada is licensed by the town council, and the law requires the organiser to announce it in local media, or failing that in the usual public places, at least 24 hours in advance, with the day, time and course.

In practice:

• The municipality of Angra do Heroísmo publishes a monthly list on its website with the day, start time, place and breeder of each tourada in its parishes. The July 2025 list had 48 entries for Angra's parishes alone.
• Island residents publish weekly and monthly calendars for the whole island on social media; the Facebook page "Touradas À Corda Da Ilha Terceira" is one of them.
• Ask at your hotel or guesthouse. On a summer weekend, staff will usually know which village has one that evening.
• The law allows only one bull event per day in a given parish and its neighbouring parishes, so you will not find two in the same village on the same evening.

The Sanjoaninas are Angra do Heroísmo's festival for Saint John, built around 24 June, and the town council calls them the largest festivities in the Azores. In 2026 they ran from 19 to 28 June under the theme "Angra e a Açorianidade", marking 50 years of Azorean autonomy. Entry to the festival events is free.

The programme mixes concerts, parades and food stalls with several kinds of bull event, and they are not all the same thing:

• Touradas à corda in parishes of the municipality. In 2026 there were three during the festival, at São Bento, Santa Bárbara and Porto das Pipas, all starting at 18:00.
• Portuguese-style bullfights (corridas à portuguesa) in the island's bullring, the Praça de Toiros Ilha Terceira. In 2026 these were on 21, 22 and 24 June.
• Esperas de gado, where cattle are driven loose, with no rope, through streets closed off for the purpose. In 2026 these were on 24 June at Alto das Covas and Rua de São Pedro, and on 25 June in Rua de São João.
• The marchas, the parades of Saint John, which in 2026 took place on the evenings of 23 and 24 June.

An espera de gado is more dangerous to be close to than a tourada à corda, because nothing holds the animals back. Watch from behind the barriers or from a balcony.

The full programme appears each spring on the Sanjoaninas site. If you want to stay in Angra that week, book early.

It depends on how you feel about animals being used for entertainment. The tourada à corda does not kill or wound the bull on purpose, and it is a village event put on by and for the people who live there. It is also an animal being chased along a public street, and people are injured every season. The rules have been amended several times since 2008, and in 2024 the regional government announced further changes aimed at animal welfare and at shortening the time bulls spend in the street. Accidents still happen: in June 2025 a bull fell into the sea and drowned during a tourada at Porto Judeu.

If you go, go early, find a wall, and treat it as someone else's village festival.

When is the tourada à corda season on Terceira?

From 1 May to 15 October, as set by regional law. Touradas start in the late afternoon, between 16:00 and 18:30 in summer and by 18:00 from September.

Is the bull killed or hurt?

It is not killed, and the rules are written to limit harm: the horns are capped, the bull runs on a rope for 15 to 30 minutes, and it cannot be run again for eight days. It goes back to the breeder afterwards, although accidents do happen.

Is it safe to watch?

It is much safer from above street level, behind a solid wall or on a balcony. The open road on the course is where people get hurt, by the bull or in falls while escaping the rope.

How do I find out where a tourada is happening?

Organisers must announce each one at least 24 hours before, in local media or public places. The Angra do Heroísmo council's monthly list, resident-run calendars on social media, your hotel, and the Sanjoaninas programme in June are the practical sources.