Columnist Jeff German: Mesquite making a bull run for the limelight

JEFF GERMAN is a senior investigative reporter. His column also appears in the Las Vegas SUN on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He can be reached at 259-4067 or on the Internet at [email protected]

THEY'RE definitely bullish on themselves in Mesquite -- enough so to pull off America's first-ever "Running of the Bulls."

Some (not me, of course) have described Mesquite's plan to organize a smaller imitation of the centuries old and sometimes deadly event in Pamplona, Spain, as a bunch of bull.

This is a city, skeptics argue, that is starved for attention. It has the misfortune of being a growing resort town only an hour's drive from Las Vegas, the resort capital of the world.

No wonder Mesquite officials have felt the need to be outrageous to show the rest of the nation they have a place worth visiting. They're tired of their city being regarded as Southern Nevada's best kept secret.

Mesquite, officials say, has been named Nevada's fastest growing community five years in a row. It has more than doubled its population to 10,000 during this time.

Today, it has three topflight hotel-casinos and four golf courses. And one more major resort is expected to open before the Running of the Bulls festival takes place July 10-12, bringing the number of hotel rooms there to 3,000.

So when the City Council approved the festival last week it showed the country it was dead serious about stealing some thunder from Pamplona to promote Mesquite as a first-class destination.

"Any event we can hold to bring people to town, we will hold," Mayor Ken Carter says. "We want people to know that whenever they come to town, something like this will happen."

That surely is an exaggeration on the mayor's part.

Such enthusiasm, however, has given Mesquite city fathers the moxie to rip off Pamplona, the town made famous in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel, "The Sun Also Rises."

Mesquite will be cranking up its festival as Pamplona winds down its celebration thousands of miles a way.

Phil Immordino, a Phoenix-based public relations man promoting the Mesquite event, says the city showed the most interest out of all of those pitched the idea.

"Mesquite is a town that's on the move," Immordino says. "Within the last 48 hours, the whole world knows about Mesquite."

Immordino and city officials say they've been swamped with media calls from as far away as London inquiring about the three-day festival.

Several hundred people already have signed up to make the July 11 run. There's room for about 1,000 participants, each paying a $50 entrance fee, to rumble down a quarter-mile stretch on the west end of town.

Immordino is expecting 10,000 spectators, which he says will pump more than $1 million into Mesquite's booming economy.

He's hoping to persuade the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to give him $25,000 to help promote the event.

So far, Mesquite resort officials working with Immordino are ecstatic about the early widespread reaction to the festival.

"We've gotten worldwide attention without having to spend a dollar," Kirk Lee, a spokesman for the Mesquite Resort Association, says. "We want people to come out and have fun. This is something different. This is controlled enthusiasm."

Controlled it will be.

Carter says the promoters plan to make the Mesquite run as safe as possible for the bulls, the participants and the spectators.

Animal rights groups already have lodged protests in Mesquite, and they are certain to continue pressuring officials to cancel the event in the days ahead.

"They don't understand what we're doing," Carter says. "We won't be dragging animals down the street with bullwhips and prodding them."

As for the participants, running in Mesquite definitely will be a more sobering experience than Pamplona, which attracts 500,000 people from all over Europe to its eight-day festival that dates back to the 16th century.

No one will be allowed on the Mesquite course if they're drunk.

In Pamplona, according to adventurous Las Vegas lawyer Will Kemp, who made the run in 1994, the festival turns into an eight-day party of drinking and dancing in the streets.

Participants, he says, stay up all night getting drunk to rustle up enough courage to run with the bulls. No fee is charged.

The course is built on narrow, slippery streets lined with 8-foot-tall wooden barricades to prevent people from escaping until the run ends inside a bull-fighting stadium, he says.

Those trying to get off the course, Kemp explains, are beaten back by police with clubs.

"It's considered very poor form to try to escape," Kemp says.

Local politico Steve Wark, who made the trek to Pamplona with Kemp, says the run drew a "huge adrenaline rush" for him.

He says it was fun, exciting and dangerous at the same time.

"The biggest problem wasn't the bulls," Wark says. "It was the people. There were people falling down left and right and getting trampled."

On that run in 1994, three participants were killed, Kemp says. Another one of his buddies, ex-UNLV basketball star Danny Tarkanian, had a front tooth knocked out.

Kemp is skeptical about the prospects for success in Mesquite.

"I don't fault them for trying, but I can't see people paying $50 to run the streets of Mesquite. It won't be the same festive atmosphere. They don't have the tradition."

Would Kemp travel to Mesquite to relive his days in Pamplona?

"I've done the real thing," he says. "I think I'll pass on this one."

Wark, however, applauds Mesquite leaders for putting on the event.

"If it were in Long Beach or some other city, it would be dumb," he says. "I think it lends itself well to the (Wild West) geography of the area."

Some Las Vegas tourism officials, meanwhile, are worried that Mesquite leaders are setting themselves up for a tragedy.

What happens if someone gets gored or trampled to death during this crazy festival? What will it do to Southern Nevada's fun-loving image?

Mesquite, it turns out, doesn't have a great track record for special events.

The last stunt the city pulled off two years ago resulted in the death of motorcycle stuntman Bruce Laswell. The cyclist died on the very stretch of road where the bulls will run.

"There are risks in whatever we do," Immordino says. "All we can do is put as many safety precautions in as possible and hope that it is a fun event.

"Let's face it, many Americans are bored to death. This will be exciting. It will get people out of the routine of everyday life."

If nothing else, you've got to admire the way the people of Mesquite are bullish on themselves.

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