Guide to La Tomatina Festival in Valencia

La Tomatina has been around since 1945, and has continued on as a famed Spanish tradition that has happened every August since then.

La Tomatina takes place in the Valencian town of Buñol, and is an event in which participants throw tomatoes in a mass food/tomato fight just for the fun of it.

The history of this festival dates back to August 1945 when young people went to the town square to attend a parade. The energy of the young people in attendance caused one person to fall off the float. The participant got angry and the rage of this participant grew into a furious crowd, and people started to grab tomatoes from a local market stall and started to pelt each other with them until the police put a stop to the battle.

For years to follow the young people continued on with this tradition of throwing tomatoes, and it continued to be shut down by the police, which led to La Tomatina being briefly banned in the early 50s. With the consistency of the town’s people, the tradition of this fight continued to happen on the last Wednesday of August, and grew into a regular festival that the town hall and city eventually embraced.

This year, La Tomatina will take place on August 26, 2015. Festivities will begin around 10:00 am and will start with the first event of the festival, palo jabón (greasy pole). The goal of this event is to climb a pole with pork on the top, but the catch is, the pole is completely greased. As this takes place, the crowd begins to sing and dance while getting showered in water sprayed from hoses. Once the pork is dropped from the top of the pole, this marks the official start of the fight, but since this could take a long time, the fight starts at 11:00am no matter what.

Tens of thousands of people make their way into Buñol for this fight that is coined to be the “World’s Biggest Food Fight.” Over one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are used to be thrown in the fight, and they are grown specifically for this festival. This food fight only lasts for about an hour and following the fight the cleaning process begins to turn Buñol back into a town that isn’t covered in tomatoes.

Some tips and advice for those hoping to attend this messy festival this year is to wear closed shoes and clothes that you don’t mind throwing away after the festival. Some participants prefer to have goggles or glasses that can protect their eyes from the tomato mess, but make sure you have something you’ll be able to wipe them off with so you don’t end up not being able to see! Also, if you plan on staying in town after or before the festival, make sure to book your accommodations in advance, as with the overload of visitors coming into the area, local hotels and hostels sell out early.

Now before you get ready for the best tomato event of the year, make sure you know the rules of this event first.

1. The tomatoes have to be squashed before throwing
2. No other items except tomatoes are allowed
3. Participants have to make way for trucks and lorries
4. After the second shot indicative of the end of the event, no tomatoes should be thrown

Have a tomatoey good time!

P.S. And if you need a place to stay during this crazy and unique festival, why not booking one of the coolest and cheapest hostels in the beautiful city of Valencia, only 20 kilometres away from Buñol? Check here for more info!

Photos: Flickr/ Creative Commons: shortCHINESEguy, Reno Tahoe, Mike Jamieson(1950)