Almost 5,000 Compostelas issued today!

[Bradypus]

The pilgrim office website is currently showing a total of 4,108 Compostelas issued today. That may not even be the final figure for the day. In the year I walked my first Camino there were 4,918 issued for the whole year...

 

[ivar]

These kids might have something to do with it

Miles de jóvenes enfervorecidos inician los actos de la Peregrinación Europea en Santiago

Abrieron en el Obradoiro cuatro días de actividades festivas y religiosas

www.lavozdegalicia.es

 

[Bradypus]

Today's total still going up - now over 4,500!

 

[Mananath]

These kids might have something to do with it

Miles de jóvenes enfervorecidos inician los actos de la Peregrinación Europea en Santiago

Abrieron en el Obradoiro cuatro días de actividades festivas y religiosas

www.lavozdegalicia.es

Oh yes. So many kids!! I made the mistake of trying to get ice cream this afternoon.. every shop I walked by was mobbed with kids! Haha
I took this pic last night at around 7pm and they were starting to fill the other sections. Trying to get into the entrance for the roof tour was a challenge...

 

[LavanyaLea]

Oh yes. So many kids!! I made the mistake of trying to get ice cream this afternoon.. every shop I walked by was mobbed with kids! Haha
I took this pic last night at around 7pm and they were starting to fill the other sections. Trying to get into the entrance for the roof tour was a challenge...
View attachment 130574

Even the Pope was scared away!

El Papa no viajará a Santiago de Compostela y mantiene a Europa fuera de su agenda

Condicionado por su lesión de rodilla, ahora su prioridad es visitar lugares de crisis para lograr mayor impacto

www.abc.es

 

[Bradypus]

The total for the day seems to have stopped at 4,978. If only another 22 could have made the effort...

 

[Bala]

Yikes

 

[LavanyaLea]

Maybe

The total for the day seems to have stopped at 4,978. If only another 22 could have made the effort...

maybe they had run out of paper, or pen, or both…

 

[C clearly]

Even the Pope was scared away!

Actually, the Pope has been busy with a very important penitential pilgrimage to Canada.

 

[LavanyaLea]

Actually, the Pope has been busy with a very important penitential pilgrimage to Canada.

He did indeed, and he looked very tired/worn out at the end of the trip.

 

[SabsP]

Those kids will be our future nurses, teachers, plumbers, engineers, policeofficers , owners of albergues, postmen, etcetera etcetera.

Hope they are enjoying themselves!

 

[Charlie Davenport]

The pilgrim office website is currently showing a total of 4,108 Compostelas issued today. That may not even be the final figure for the day. In the year I walked my first Camino there were 4,918 issued for the whole year...

View attachment 130570

I sincerely doubt the kids had anything to do with it... it's vacation month in much of Europe... and, as with most of 2022, people are getting out of their normal routines and doing more... Rough on the volunteers processing but great for those who made the walk!!

 

[IngridF]

Even the Pope was scared away!

El Papa no viajará a Santiago de Compostela y mantiene a Europa fuera de su agenda

Condicionado por su lesión de rodilla, ahora su prioridad es visitar lugares de crisis para lograr mayor impacto

www.abc.es

Well, I think he would have been happier in Santiago, then the trip he was on in Canada. It was a very important and long overdue trip here. Apologies so necessary, but the churches action going forward much more important.

 

[Kathor1]

I sincerely doubt the kids had anything to do with it... it's vacation month in much of Europe... and, as with most of 2022, people are getting out of their normal routines and doing more... Rough on the volunteers processing but great for those who made the walk!!

Well ... the figure for Compostelas issued on Thursday 4 August 2022 - 4.978 Compostelas - is an exceptionally high number and an all-time record.

The PEJ22 event is, according to reports, attended by some 12.000 young people and lasts from Wednesday 3 August until Sunday 7 August 2022. Not all of them will have walked a bit on a Camino into Santiago, of course, and had their leaders claim a Compostelas for their group members but I guess a number of groups will have done so.

Thursday has become one of the weekdays with the highest daily number of Compostelas - presumably because numerous people start on the previous weekend and walk for 5+ days to Santiago.

Compare:
4.978 - Thursday 4 August 2022
1.564 - Wednesday 3 August 2022
1.531 - Tuesday 2 August 2022
1.449 - Monday 1 August 2022
2.092 - Sunday 31 July 2022
3.569 - Saturday 30 July 2022
2.961 - Friday 29 July 2022
2.319 - Thursday 28 July 2022
1.869 - Wednesday 27 July 2022

 

[Anniesantiago]

Holy MOLY!

 

[t2andreo]

The only way this can happen is if many, large groups use the offline group preregistration process to obtain Compostelas, without each person waiting in line for their individual certificate. Doing this, only the group leaders ever see the inside of the office. It was not intended to handle 5,000 pilgrims daily.

I fly to Spain this coming week to work as a volunteer for the last half of August. In a way, I am glad to avoid this huge one-off demand. On the other hand, I always enjoy the challenge of trying to satisfy everyone.

As I was saying to a good friend of mine who is finishing her volunteer stint now, we would go to bed very tired at night, at the end of a 2,000 or 3,000 pilgrim day. But, it is a good kind of exhaustion.

Fingers crossed.

Tom

 

[TaraWalks]

Hmm I wonder what the numbers will be like in Summer 2023? I wonder if most people will have gotten the Camino out of their system, walking in 2022 and it not being a Holy Year and all (if that makes sense…)

 

[Lexicos]

Good grief, I hope it’s not that busy in September. I don’t fancy having to sleep under an open sky!!

 

[trecile]

Good grief, I hope it’s not that busy in September. I don’t fancy having to sleep under an open sky!!

Don't worry. Most of those almost 5000 pilgrims started around Sarria, and September in Galicia is not as busy as August.

 

[Kathor1]

The 12,000 young pilgrims who participate in the PEJ22 event are accommodated in pavilions, in private homes and in a warehouse.​

​

The PEJ22 event welcomes a total of 12.000 young people, which exceeds the 8.000 of the last edition of PEJ in 2010. To walk the Camino, the participants had been assigned to eleven different Camino routes to avoid saturation, and now they all come together in Santiago for five days.​

​

As to accommodation, the young pilgrims will be housed in thirty accommodation centres: municipal pavilions donated by the City Council of Santiago and by neighbouring municipalities, the former warehouse of the Bonaval Motor Seat dealership (currently in disuse) and even in the private homes of a small group of families from Compostela who open their doors to these young pilgrims.​

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) - https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/notic...es-casas-concesionario/0003_202208S3C4991.htm

 

[Kathor1]

Saturday was another day with over 4,000 Compostelas issued. The PEJ22 event ends today. I‘m curious to see whether numbers return to a more normal range, i.e. on average around 2,000 in August.

The past three days (Thursday to Saturday) add up to 12,340.

 

[Kathor1]

Perhaps useful to add for those who are not familiar with the usual patterns: these high numbers of peregrinos refer to the situation in Santiago and on the last sections of the Caminos in Galicia. They do not refer to the situation elsewhere, in particular the Camino Francés where numbers of pilgrims are relatively low and beds a plentiful which is typical for this time of the year and the pilgrimage season. See https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/traffic-on-the-francés.76230/

 

[Kathor1]

The numbers of daily Compostelas are now again significantly lower than 4,000 and even 3,000, presumably because the PEJ22 event is over.

For Sunday-Tuesday (7-9 August 2022) they were 2,717 Compostelas; 2,576 Compostelas; and 2,580 Compostelas.

This is still higher than in August 2019, the last 'normal' year before Covid-19, where the daily record for August was in the 3,000 range but remained mostly below 2,000 otherwise.

The Pilgrims Welcome Office in SJPP have also published their figures. Throughout 2022, from January to July, their monthly figures are lower than their 2019 figures.

Assuming that this also reflects the situation along the Camino Frances in the early and perhaps middle sections, the much written about and frequently predicted avalanche of pilgrims due to a presumed Holy Year effect or a presumed catch-up effect post-Covid did not materialise.

Only in May 2022 did the SJPP data reach the level of 2019: 9,743 pilgrims now versus 10,358 then. If this has any predictive value, then it can be expected that the first two weeks of this coming September will be as busy as always in Navarra, La Rioja and Castilla y Leon but not much busier than that.

 

[IngridF]

The only way this can happen is if many, large groups use the offline group preregistration process to obtain Compostelas, without each person waiting in line for their individual certificate. Doing this, only the group leaders ever see the inside of the office. It was not intended to handle 5,000 pilgrims daily.

I fly to Spain this coming week to work as a volunteer for the last half of August. In a way, I am glad to avoid this huge one-off demand. On the other hand, I always enjoy the challenge of trying to satisfy everyone.

As I was saying to a good friend of mine who is finishing her volunteer stint now, we would go to bed very tired at night, at the end of a 2,000 or 3,000 pilgrim day. But, it is a good kind of exhaustion.

Fingers crossed.

Tom

Enjoy Tom and Bon Voyage!

 

[JanusDT]

Its crazy because I am now just after León and feel like the camino is not crowded at all. Usually the albergues remain quite empty and finding a place to stay is never a problem. Currently i am the only pelgrim in the albergie i am staying today (and feel sad for the owner because the albergue is very lovely).

 

[Kathor1]

"It is a trend that we have already seen in recent Holy Years. Pilgrims who walk long-distance pilgrimage routes do not come in larger numbers when it is a Holy Year”.

A recent article describes that the “boom” of pilgrim numbers in Holy Years happens mainly on Camino sections close to Santiago, and this is not a novelty of 2022.

In particular along the Camino Francés before Sarria, 2022 numbers are often on average only 70 % of the numbers in 2019, the last ‘normal’ year before Covid-19. The public albergues on the Fisterra and Muxía routes can also not fill their vacancies this year.

El otro efecto del Xacobeo: los peregrinos ya no vienen de Francia

Desde la Asociación Galega de Albergues Privados señalan que los niveles de ocupación en el Camino Francés antes de Sarria bajan con respecto a antes de la pandemia, mientras los alojamientos públicos del Camino de Fisterra y Muxía no llegan a cubrir sus plazas

venagalicia.gal

 

[trecile]

I'm curious about what time the Pilgrim's Office has been "running out" of tickets each day. When I arrived in September 2019 when this system was new those arriving after around 12:30 found that there were no more tickets that day, and that they would have to return in the morning.

 

[Kathor1]

I'm curious about what time the Pilgrim's Office has been "running out" of tickets each day. When I arrived in September 2019 when this system was new those arriving after around 12:30 found that there were no more tickets that day, and that they would have to return in the morning.

In recent weeks, I have not seen any complaints from pilgrims who had arrived early-ish in the day but were already too late to get their Compostela on the same day because ticket numbers had run out. I wonder whether the new system works well now, or whether there is a sufficient number of staff and volunteers to cope with the high demand, or whether it's just because it is August where the number of international pilgrims arriving in Santiago is lower and we just don't hear much from Spanish pilgrims.

August 2022 turns out to be an absolute record breaker. So far, there have been 5 days where over 4,000 Compostelas have been issued, and several days with over 3,300. If memory does not fail me, we marvelled at a lone record of around 3,200 on one summer day in 2019.

They must be doing something right this year.

 

[Kathor1]

The figures for August 2022 are on the website of the Oficina del Peregrino. I am surprised that it has not yet made news because it must be an absolute monthly record:

• More than 85,000 pilgrims collected their Compostela in August, no doubt thanks to the European Youth Pilgrimage event and the long 15th of August weekend but presumably also thanks to PR in connection with the Xacobeo / Holy Year 2022 and a general increase in tourism.
  
  
• The last comparable month - August 2019 - counted "only" around 62,000 pilgrims who claimed their Compostelas.
  
  
• The figures show how much all this is a Spanish / Galician affair in August: Over 60,000 of these pilgrims were Spanish nationals (70 %). Nearly 50,000 of these pilgrims indicated the Galician towns of Sarria, Tui, Ferrol, Lugo, Vigo, Ourense and Cebreiro as their starting point (60 %).
  
  
• A mere 2,783 of these August arrivals had indicated SJPP as their starting point - this is around 3% of the total number. That 816 pilgrims had started in Roncesvalles does not change much of the overall picture.