Mexico's National Pyrotechnic Festival - The World's Most INSANE Festival

Greetings from Mexico. I find myself back in this country. It's the one I've been to the most outside of my own country of the United States.

I didn't expect to get up to a whole lot while in Mexico this time around because I wanted to work on building my Steem account and catching up on travel videos. Little did I know what Mexico had in store for me this time.

Here's the backstory: I follow a bunch of travel Youtubers because that's the kind of content I like to watch. One of my favorites is Mike Corey. He recently changed his channel name to Fearless and Far, but when I met him it was Kick the Grind. I saw on his Instagram story that he'd be in Mexico City and attending a festival nearby so I emailed him and asked if I could join him. Long story short, he said yes.

The festival we went to is Mexico's National Pyrotechnic Festival, locally known as Feria Nacional de la Pirotecnia. It is a week-long festival that takes place every year in a town called Tultepec which is about a 50 minute drive north of Mexico City. People have been making fireworks in Tultepec for 150+ years since the materials required to produce gunpowder were all locally attainable. It is now considered Mexico's Capital of Fireworks. The festival is held in early March and each day of the week brings different explosive events to boost the local economy and celebrate their firework heritage. The main event happens on March 8th where they honor San Juan de Dios, the patron saint of fireworks, by parading giant papier-mache bulls (toritos) through the streets to be blown up in the town square.

One of the hundreds of bulls with fireworks attached and ready to be lit

I came prepared

Now, since Mexico is a no holds barred kind of country when it comes to celebrations, things get a little crazy. And by "a little" I mean HELLA CRAZY. As the bulls are being dashed through the square and blowing up with thousands of fireworks, anyone with a sense of crazy in them is allowed to get as close to the blazing hot action as they want. They run around and jump and try to brush off any fireworks that hit them before they get burned too badly. Alcohol influences many of these people so things do get dangerous when burning projectiles combine with poor decision-making and impaired motor skills.

People come to get burned

The insanity lasts all night and well into the early morning. Despite the danger, it is an incredibly unique and fun festival and I can confidently proclaim it as The World's Most Insane Festival.

ATTEND AT YOUR OWN RISK! And maybe bring fire-resistant clothing when you do.

Did you know that something like this existed? Would you jump into the fireworks with us?

My video is at DLive