Let the Streets of Buñol Run Red: La Tomatina

The festivities begin at 10 a.m. with el palo jabòn, a greasy pole challenge where a climber must drop a ham tied at the top, signaling the official start of La Tomatina, Buñol’s famous annual food fight. With La Fiesta de San Fermín and Los Concurs de Castells, La Tomatina is right at home with Spain’s many eccentric festivals.

Trucks enter Las Plaza de Pueblo, carrying ammunition grown in Extremadura, where they are farmed specifically for this event thanks to their bad taste and cheapness. The official tomato count is around 150,000, weighing in at 40 metric tons of produce flowing through Buñol. While La Tomatina has become internationally famous as the world’s biggest food fight, its origins remain a mystery.

© Iakov Filimonov | Dreamstime

The details change from story to story, but they all begin at the same time, during the town’s parade of Gigantes y Cabezudos in 1945. A group of young people took part in the parade and one was either pushed off or decided to start a staged brawl that eventually unfurled into a food fight using the goods of nearby tomato vendors. Onlookers joined in before law enforcement stopped the commotion and forced participants to repay the vendors, though it was already too late as the boys had unwittingly birthed a new Valencian tradition.

Bringing their own ammunition, combatants returned in the following years to uphold the fight, though no one knows exactly why. Authorities banned, reinstated and again repressed the tradition until 1957 when they caved to public demand. By the end of the 20^th century, La Tomatina had become a Spanish festival staple, with bigger crowds every year coming from all over the world.

© Mmeeds | Dreamstime

The fight begins midday with a loud shot ringing out. The juice looks a bit like blood, and there is a short list of rules to ensure safety for everyone:

1. Only tomatoes are allowed, no other projectiles.
2. The tomatoes have to be squashed before throwing.
3. Participants have to make way for trucks.
4. The fight ends with the second shot, exactly one hour after the start.

Covered in juice, pulp and seeds, participants can wash off in los peñones as fire trucks hose down the plaza. Despite the mess, Buñol’s cobblestones get squeaky clean after, thanks to the disinfecting properties of acidic tomatoes.

La Tomatina is held on the last Wednesday of August, and is actually part of a week of celebrations commemorating the town’s patron saints, the Virgin Mary and San Louis Bertrand. You can learn more about the festival at its official website, latomatina.info.