World’s biggest tomato fight – The Tomatina
Every year a small town in the province of Valencia becomes the hot spot for the biggest tomato fight worldwide. I’m talking about Buñol (9000 inhabitants) where every last Wednesday of August 40.000 crazy people celebrate the Tomatina.
Most of the participants come from all around the world, like Australia, USA and around Europe, but just a few from Spain itself.
The centre of the harmless fight is the Plaza del Pueblo, where at 10 o’clock the first challenge takes place. The people have 1 hour to climb up a 7 meter high waxed log in order to catch the ham on top of it. To be in a pole position you should be there 3 hours before!
If nobody can handle the ham-catching-task, the tomato battle begins at exactly 11 o’clock and ends one hour later. So at 12 o’clock it’s no longer allowed to throw tomatos around.
Due to the use of overriped tomatos there haven’t been any bad injuries yet, but wearing swimming goggles is more than useful in order to avoid any eye infections caused by the sour juice from the red vegetable. A lot of street vendors sell them for 2-3 Euros before the battle starts.
After the wild event the tourists receive help by the locals, to get rid of the red remainings, by using e.g. hosepipes.
The Tomatina, as we know it today, was celebrated the first time in 1940. Nevertheless nobody actually knows how the event was invented, but some myths do exist. One version for example says that some friends met up and pelt each other with tomatos. From time to time more people got attracted and joined. Another myth relies on a dispute between neighbours. Nobody knows…
In Colombia they have their own version of the Tomatina since 2004 in the city Sutamarchán.
