| "La Tomatina" in Buñol |
Surely the worlds' biggest food-fight: every year
around 30,00 people descend on the Spanish town
of Bunol (in the Valencia region of Spain) to throw
more than 240,000 pounds of tomatoes at each other.
The festival is started with a ham-on-a-stick contest
where competitors raced up a pole to retrieve a
smoked leg of ham. When the ham is cut down,
people put on eye protection and cry for tomatoes as
trucks dump the squishy produce onto the village
streets. They then proceed to pelt each other with
them until all have been used up.
The festival on the last Wednesday of August is
called 'the Tomatina' and is basically a town-wide
tomato fight. It is thought the tradition began in 1945
when a fight erupted among two young members of
a carnival crowd. A vegetable stall was nearby in the
town square and every started throwing tomatoes at
each other. Exactly one year later, young people met
at the square, but this time with their own tomatoes.
Another food-fight started but was broken up by
police.
In the following years this practice was banned by
the authorities, but due to popular demand was
given official recognition in 1959. This was only to
occur if participants would respect the start and the
end of tomato-throwing being announced with a
banger.
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| 'La Tomatina' Tomato Fight |