The Valencia bullring will reopen its doors, after a break since last May due to the new lighting works, on the occasion of the 2026 Fallas Fair.
The new fallero cycle, between the 7th and 19th of next March, will consist of six bullfights, two bullfights with picadors, one without them, and the classic bullfighting celebration. The poster presentation gala took place at the Charity Cultural Center and was attended by the president of the Provincial Council, Vicente Mompó, and the heads of the company Espacios Nautalia 360, Rafael García Garrido and Víctor Zabala. In addition, several of the announced swords were also present, such as the matadors Fortes, Román, Tomás Rufo, Samuel Navalón and Víctor Hernández, and the bullfighters Marco Polope, Juan Alberto Torrijos, Mario Vilau, Julio Méndez and Alberto Donaire.
The subscription has Alejandro Talavante as the greatest exponent and also not very understandable, as he fought two afternoons, in addition to announcing himself as a rancher in the first bullfight. The biggest and most welcome novelties are represented by the young matadors David de Miranda, Samuel Navalón, Víctor Hernández and Marco Pérez, who refresh a fair that also has very veteran bullfighters in the ranks, in some cases with the interest amortized. Fortes returns to Valencia, after several years of absence, fortunately recovered for bullfighting. Also among the young people, although already known in this square, are Borja Jiménez and Tomás Rufo, who make up a surprising and not very understood head-to-head on the 18th. A subscription, in short, that mixes swords with their professional history already written, with others that point to the renewal of the ranks.
The livestock chapter offers no news and the same old irons are repeated on the afternoons when the so-called figures appear. The irons of La Quinta and Santiago Domecq represent the greatest bullish interest in the livestock sector.
There are two absences that stand out and are not understood, that of the matador Daniel Luque, one of the most prominent of the 2025 edition, and that of the bullfighter El Mene, the great and undisputed winner of last year’s Fallas.
According to Rafael García Garrido, head of the company, “I would title this cycle as the fair of illusion, in which we have combined talent and need.” In addition to highlighting the news announced “as the hope of bullfighting,” Garrido also pointed out that the current context of bullfighting has nothing to do with what it was five years ago, when they arrived in Valencia, “now it is a fair that is committed to the renewal of bullfighting, and Valencia is the first premier bullring that must respond to the future of bullfighting.”
For his part, Vicente Mompó, president of the Provincial Council, announced that in addition to the renovation of the lighting already completed, “throughout the season various works will be carried out in the arena, which will not prevent the normal development of the season, which will serve to condition it and turn it into one of the best in Spain without losing its essence as a temple of bullfighting.”
The combinations of the Fallas of 2026 are the following:
Saturday, March 7. Bullfighting without picadors with students from the different bullfighting schools.
Domingo, 8. bullfighting Emiliano Osornio, Mario Vilau and Marco Polope (Talavante steers).
Friday, the 13th. Fortes, Román and David de Miranda (La Quinta bulls)
Saturday, 14. Alejandro Talavante, Roca Rey and Samuel Navalón (bulls from Victoriano del Rio and Toros de Cortés).
Domingo, 15. Morning jogging. Andy Cartagena, Diego Ventura and Lea Vicens (bulls of María Guiomar Cortés de Moura)
Domingo, 15. In the afternoon. Sebastián Castella, José María Manzanares and Pablo Aguado (Jandilla bulls)
Monday, 16. bullfighting Juan Alberto Torrijos, Julio Méndez and Julio Norte (bulls from Fuente Ymbro)
Mars, 17. Miguel Ángel Perera, Víctor Hernández and Marco Pérez (Santiago Domecq bulls)
Wednesday, 18. Borja Jiménez and Tomás Rufo, hand in hand (bulls of Domingo Hernández)
Thursday, 19. Alejandro Talavante, Emilio de Justo and Juan Ortega (bulls from Núñez del Cuvillo).
The bullfight to be celebrated on Saturday, May 9, on the occasion of the festival of the Virgen de los Desamparados, was also announced, in which Alberto Donaire, Félix Sanromán and Ignacio Garibay will perform in front of Chamaco’s utreros.
Following the presentation of the posters, the Bullfighting Union of Valencia Subscribers, chaired by Agustín Colomar, has published a note in which, among other things, it points out that “we cannot be happy, because we are missing some bullfighters and we have plenty of others.” He adds that hand-to-hand “is unjustified”; Talavante “is not who he was and should not be at the fair, just like Manzanares and Castella”; and something unprecedented: “another fair without Daniel Luque.”