You know those famous “food fight in the cafeteria” movie scenes? Picture that, but bigger!
Nope. Bigger than that. Now imagine you’re in middle of a plaza in Spain… add in more people (and we mean a lot more people) and you’ve got yourself the largest food fight in the world.
La Tomatina Festival in the town of Buñol in Valencia, Spain is an annual food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August where people chuck tomatoes at each other. Yup, just tomatoes. There’s no clear reason how or why this festival started but it has been a strong tradition in the Spanish city since 1945. The festival was briefly banned by during Francisco Franco’s reign for having no religious importance, but returned in the 1970s after his death.
So how does it all go down? We thought you’d never ask.
Between 10:00 and 11:00am, a truck load of tomatoes hauls into town and the fighting begins! The whole thing lasts for about an hour or two. Since 2013, because of the immense popularity of the festival, participation in the event has been restricted to paid ticket-holders. If you miss out on ticket, you can always join the official pre and after party. Basic tour packages are offered at around US$80 to US$200 and the party passes are around US$15 to US$70.
Warning, you WILL get dirty:
Thinking you wanna go? Here are the rules of play:
- NO throwing of bottles or hard objects as they can cause accidents and hurt other participants
- Do NOT grab or rib anyone’s clothing.
- Squash ALL tomatoes before throwing them as this reduces the impact.
- Keep a safe distance from the trucks.
- More useful rules and tips here.
So, is this going on your Bucket List? Let us know below…
~ The Freedom Team
