Welcome To Spain's Epic Tomato-Throwing Festival, La Tomatina
Every year on the last Wednesday in August, the small city of Buñol, Spain gets all juiced up for the "world's biggest food fight," La Tomatina. It's insane, and looks like this:
It looks like absolute chaos, and it almost is — though according to what appears to be the festival's official website, there are a handful of rules:
- Do not enter bottles or hard objects because you can cause an accident or damages to your battle's fellows.
- Do not tear or throw your T-shirts nor others T-shirts.
- Squash the tomatoes before throwing them, the hit will be less painful.
- Keep a safe distance of the lorries.
- Stop to throw tomatoes when you hear the shot of the second warning firework.
- Follow the security staff directions.
- No entrance is allowed to anyone with a backpack, bag, camera or any other object that may cause harm.
As you might guess, a scene as wild as La Tomatina creates some pretty incredible photographs. The Atlantic did a phenomenal photo round up last year, and the Irish Examiner already has a good one from today.
But if you want to get a view from the ground, simply search La Tomatina on Instagram:
After the last tomato is thrown and Buñol is covered in the start of a nice marinara, fire hoses are brought in to spray down the town.
Here's a hilariously crappy phone video from six years ago that demonstrates that perfectly:
Long live La Tomatina.
