Illescas Fair (Toledo) 2024: El Milagro is consolidated

"What works, don't touch it". It's a sentence of Maximino Perez, manager of the Illescas bullring. A very appropriate saying for the Illescas Fair, the one created by the Madrid manager almost a decade ago in the modern multipurpose arena of the town of Toledo.

Since then, Andrés Roca Rey in the bullfight and Diego Ventura in the bullfighting event have been the pillars of this fair and its main attraction at the box office. In 2024 it will be no exception. The Peruvian star will open the fair one more year on Saturday, March 9 to face a bullfight of the Daniel Ruiz bulls with the intention of reediting the many successes in the Illescas bullring.

José María Manzanares, with more than two decades of his alternative bullfighting, will open a combination that will be topped by the young Fernando Adrián, a revelation of last season, who will make his debut in this season. Adrián performed last year in fifteen bullfights, and in all of them he came out on the shoulders, a unique case in the most recent history of bullfighting.

In addition, the native of Torres de la Alameda was the winner of San Isidro, after cutting two ears to a bullfight of Santiago Domecq, a success he repeated a few weeks later in the Charity Bullfight after desorejar twice a bull of Juan Pedro Domecq. Those two consecutive Puertas Grandes consecrated the Madrid-born bullfighter as the top winner of the 2023 season at the Monumental de Las Ventas.

On Sunday the 10th, it is the turn of the rejones, where the name of Diego Ventura is once again the compass and reference. The name of the bullfighter from La Puebla del Río is intimately linked to the consolidation of this event within a cycle where bullfighting on horseback also has an important role.

The bullfighter from Alicante Andy Cartagena and the French Léa Vicens, two more than contrasted rejoneadores, with an extensive curriculum of successes and an outstanding presence every year in the noble zone of the career ladder, complete the trio. The bulls to be fought are of maximum guarantee: afighting bulls from the El Capea ranch, a reference in the shows of this modality.

Despite not yet being a decade old, the Feria del Milagro de Illescas is not only well established in the circuit, but has become a point of reference for all the fans of the central area at the beginning of the season. The privileged enclave of this town, the accesses and the comfort of the enclosure, and the guarantee that the show will be held in spite of the eventual inclement weather, have contributed to make Illescas a must at the beginning of each season.

And finally, the opportunity to share the bullring with familiar faces, with the faces that you see every day on television and that make the Milagro celebrations a social event, beyond the bullfighting event. As it happened for almost fifteen years in Brihuega, where the Corrida de Primavera was the most important event in the province, now it is the town of La Mancha, equidistant from the capital of the province and the capital of Spain, which has taken over. It is the Miracle of Illescas. And the miracle of Maximino.

José Miguel Arruego

Bullfighting poster for the Illescas Fair, Toledo 2024