The town of Buñol — close to Valencia in eastern Spain — plays host to one of the world’s most eccentric festivals, where the hurling of thousands of tomatoes has become both an annual tradition and a cultural institution. La Tomatina happens every year on the last Wednesday of August. Arrive prepared to get into the swing of things with our first-timer’s guide to the festival of La Tomatina.
Getting into the swing of things at La Tomatina
WHAT IS LA TOMATINA?
Under the fierce summer sun of eastern Spain, Buñol’s narrow, cobbled streets become the battleground for an epic, one-hour food fight, where more than 20,000 people and around 100 tons of tomatoes — grown specially for the event and shipped in from farms all over Spain — descend upon the town.
The scale of the fight is so vast that, by the end, the quaint Valencian town is left flowing with rivers of tomato pulp so thick that only a convoy of fire trucks, with their powerful hoses, can clean up the mess. Meanwhile, the thousands of participants — covered head to toe in tomato guts — wash off in the nearby river before enjoying a day of festive verbenas, or street parties, with live music, dancing and giant paellas.
How La Tomatina — dubbed the world’s biggest food fight — came to be is a little murky. Some say it began as an impromptu food fight among friends, while others believe its origins lie in an alcohol-fueled feud during one of the town’s religious festivals. Either way, the first mention of the food fight dates back to the mid-20th century. The most popular theory is that in August of 1945, a fight broke out in Buñol during the festival of Gigantes y Cabezudos (Giants and Big Heads), where papier-mâché giants and folk wearing enlarged papier-mâché heads parade through the streets. The story goes that a group of young people pushed their way into the procession, causing someone to fall. Chaos ensued and, with a fruit stand nearby, the angry crowds began throwing tomatoes at each other.
The following year, the same mischievous group returned to the parade — this time armed with their own tomatoes. The food fight continued year after year, until finally being recognized as an official celebration in 1952. The festival was banned briefly in the 1970s during Francoist Spain for having no religious significance, but soon returned after the dictatorship ended. Today, it’s held in honor of the town’s patron saint, St. Louis Bertrand, and the Mare de Deu dels Desemparats (Mother of God of the Defenseless) as part of a week-long celebration filled with parades, fireworks and traditional food from the region.
Cobbled streets of Buñol, Spain
WHERE IS LA TOMATINA?
Inhabited for thousands of years, the eastern Spanish town of Buñol — a blend of whitewashed walls and a blue-domed church — offers ancient history, outdoor adventure and traditional Valencian cuisine. Dominating the town center is the 11th-century Castillo de Buñol, one of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in the region. It’s free to enter and inside there’s a fascinating museum displaying remains from the Paleolithic, Neolithic and the Iron and Bronze Ages through to the time of the Iberians and Romans who settled in the region. If you have time, head to the El Salvador Church, which is home to the town’s Archaeological Museum. Surrounding the town are hiking trails leading to forested mountains, rivers and waterfalls, including Cueva Turche — a 130-foot cascade that plunges into a turquoise pool — and Charco Mañán, a natural swimming pool surrounded by lush greenery and limestone rock formations.
When it comes to food in Buñol, don’t miss paella, a world-famous rice dish that hails from nearby Valencia. Most restaurants will offer seafood and chicken paellas, but traditional Valencian paella is prepared with rabbit, snails and green beans, with extra credit if it’s cooked over an open fire. Sugar-dusted pumpkin dough fritters called bunyols, and esgarraet — a salad made with cured cod, red peppers and black olives — are also worth seeking out.
A reveler covered in tomato pulp
HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
In 2012, a record 50,000 people took part in La Tomatina in Buñol — quite a feat for a town with a population of 9,000. Since then, a ticketing system has been put in place to limit the festival to around 20,000 people. Tickets cost around $13 and must be booked via the La Tomatina website and printed out in advance. Alternatively, tour companies offer packages that include entry to the festival, transport, accommodations and food, which is usually a plate of paella and sangria.
On arrival in Buñol, festival staff will exchange your printed ticket for a bracelet. This gives you access to the food fight, which usually starts at noon and lasts around an hour. Traditionally, La Tomatina can only begin once someone has successfully climbed to the top of a greasy wooden pole, where a leg of serrano ham awaits the worthy winner. In reality, though, people start throwing tomatoes as soon as a rocket is fired into the air, signaling that the fight can officially begin.
Following the signal, trucks parade the streets and throw tons of tomatoes down to the frenzied crowds. Within minutes, tomatoes are being pelted from every direction — including windows, balconies and lamp posts — until the streets of Buñol, and everyone within them, turn red with tomato pulp.
This year, the festival is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, August 28, and there are three very important things to remember: it will get extremely messy, your clothes will be ruined and you’ll never look at tomatoes the same way again.
By Jessica Vincent
