Buckle up everyone! The excitement is building up in the streets of Spain this afternoon, as preparations for La Tomatina are in full swing.
The trucks have already delivered the "ammo"- tons of juicy tomatoes are ready for the messy fun!
La Tomatina (Tomato fight) is a food festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Bunol, a small town in the province of Valencia, Spain.
Thousands upon thousands of people make their way from all corners of the world to fight in this "World’s Biggest Food Fight" where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
Prior to 2013 anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 people crammed into huge tomato fight, greatly expanding Bunol’s normal 9,000-person population.
In 2002, Spain officially recognized the festival as an international tourism attraction. Since then, the event has only been suspended twice, in 2020 and 2021, due to covid-19 pandemic.
The tomato fight has been a strong tradition in Bunol some 38 km from Valencia, Spain, since 1944.
However, there are theories how it started, with the one that Tomatina began started with a local food fight among friends, a juvenile class war, a volley of tomatoes from bystanders at the carnival parade, a practical joke on a bad musician, and the anarchic aftermath of an accidental lorry spillage.
At around noon, a number of trucks haul the bounty of tomatoes into the Centre of the town, Plaza del pueblo.
The tomatoes come from Extremadura, where they are less expensive.
Interestingly, the festival doesn’t begin until one brave soul has climbed to the top of a two-story high, greased-up wooden pole and reached the coveted ham at the top.
On ground, this process takes a long time and the festival starts despite no one reaching the juicy reward.
The fight starts with the firing of water cannons, and the chaos begins. Once it begins, the battle is generally every man for himself.
After an hour the fighting ends. Then, the cleaning process involves the use of fire trucks to spray down the streets with water.
But the visitors have to wash themselves up at the Bunol River as the local authorities focus more on cleaning the messy town rather than cleaning the town!
After La Tomatina gained popularity through social media buzz, more or like similar festivals are held in Florida, London, Amsterdam, Sutam Archan in Colombia, and lately in Hyderabad, India.
Still, it’s clear that Bunol is synonymous with La Tomatina, and the festival has been growing leaps and bounds.