The Wild Spanish Festival Where People Throw Tomatoes By The Truckload

While America has pickle festivals, Spain has a tomato one. But this tomato festival is no small, local fair — La Tomatina is an incredible and very messy day. It takes place on the last Wednesday in August in the small town of Buñol, just west of Valencia, where an otherwise tranquil area is transformed as thousands of people gather to join in or simply observe the celebrations. It begins quietly, although very memorably, with an early morning greasy-pole climbing contest called “palo jabón,” where someone has to climb a slimy pole to reach a hanging leg of ham, and pure tomato chaos begins once they reach it. From there, trucks start rolling in, packed with tons of over-ripe tomatoes — totaling approximately 330,600 pounds — and participants wearing white shirts begin to pelt them with abandon.

The only rules are that participants must only throw tomatoes (don’t try to throw anything else), and they have to crush them before throwing so that no one gets hurt. Once the fun is over, the town is left bright red. But no stress, because it turns out that the acid in the tomato mush leaves the cobbled streets even cleaner than when the festival began. For both the town’s locals and the visitors who come to watch La Tomatina, this festival is part spectacle and part pure unadulterated freedom… because when was the last time you had a food fight as an adult?

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La Tomatina is Spain’s juiciest tradition

After the madness is over, participants can rinse off the tomato pulp at free public showers that are organized by the council, or they can run down to some riverside spots, wearing T-shirts that are now stained pink and red. La Tomatina used to be free to attend, but ticketing was introduced in 2013 to limit the festival to just 20,000 attendees, preventing dangerous overcrowding. However, 20,000 is still a massive crowd, so it’s good advice to put on protective footwear — you might get your toes crushed in sandals.

Spain is the world’s biggest producer of olive oil, but it’s also the third-largest exporter of tomatoes, which may explain why there are surplus tomatoes available for this festival. While the rest of us use surplus and overripe tomatoes for tomato jam and other food preparations, using them in an organized public food fight sounds way more fun. The aftermath of attending an event like this must feel like a post-concert buzz — except instead of ringing ears, your ears (and everything else) are full of crushed tomatoes. And as quickly as La Tomatina starts, it’s over. Buñol is clean again by sunset, and you’d never know it even happened, that is, until it happens all over again the following year.

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Read the original article on Chowhound.