We’re sure you’re used to painting the town red – especially at the weekend! But over in Buñol, an area 25 miles west of Valencia, they love to get literal with the phrase – turning the small town various shades of the colour. Their medium? Tomatoes, and lots of them. Their canvas? Each other. That’s right, every year 20,000 people flock to Buñol to take part in one enormous food fight.
We know you’ll be full of questions right now. It sounds stranger than fiction, right? Wonder no more, we’ll answer the what, when and – most importantly – why of this weird, wonderful, and very messy festival below…
What is La Tomatina?
La Tomatina is a tomato-throwing festival whose origins date all the way back to 1945. The exact genesis is a little murky, but it’s been said that the festival’s tomato-y roots started when a papier-mache figure was knocked over during a parade by a group of unruly kids. A scuffle broke out, and it wasn’t long before tomatoes from a nearby vegetable cart started being thrown. The next year, people returned to the same spot in Buñol to do it all over again and La Tomatina as we know it today began!
When is La Tomatina?
La Tomatina takes place on the last Wednesday of every August, with the madness usually starting at 11am.
Why is La Tomatina celebrated?
Although the festival isn’t an especially religious festival, or wasn’t originally anyway, it’s now held in honour of St. Louis Bertrand, the patron saint of Buñol.
How long does La Tomatina last?
OK, so bear with us. At around 10am, people gather in Plaza del Pueblo, the town’s main square. From here, people attempt to grab a ham from the top of a greased-up 30 ft. pole. The grabbing of the ham is supposed to begin the festival, but as you can imagine such a feat is a bit of a rarity, and at 11am – ham or no ham – a cannon signals the beginning of the festival (we’re not making this up, honest).
At this point, 120 tonnes of tomatoes are tipped onto the streets, and for the next hour, Buñol and everyone assembled there turns into tomato puree. Another cannon signals the end precisely an hour later at 12pm, and all chucking, throwing, and lobbing of tomatoes must stop.
Obviously, everyone and everything is a tomato-covered mess by 12pm. Luckily, clean-up duty is carried out by the fire department, who hose down the town in a jiffy. Participants usually head down to the river to wash away the layer of red they’re wearing – or locals usually break out their hoses to spray off the remnants of tomato.
Once everyone’s clean, the party carries on across the town, where plazas fill up with good food, dancing, and plenty of sangria! People are serious about partying here, and it’s common for the good times to go on all the way up to 5 in the morning…
Those La Tomatina rules in full
While La Tomatina sounds like a bit of a free-for-all, the good, not-so-clean fun does actually have a few rules that anyone taking part must follow. These include:
- Do not enter the festivals with glass bottles, hard objects, or backpacks as these could end up injuring other tomato-throwers
- Participants should squash tomatoes before throwing them
- Keep a safe distance from the tomato trucks when they empty their contents
- Participants must stop throwing tomatoes as soon as they hear the second siren
How to take part in La Tomatina
Want to get involved in the mess and mayhem? We thought so! It’s easy to get from Valencia to Buñol by train. For the full experience, a lot of people stay in the town for the entire week, where all manner of parades, music and firework displays take place. The night before the food fight, there’s even a paella cooking competition. To add to the tradition, women opt for white clothing, while men tend to take the tops-off approach!
Oh, and you’ll have to pay €10 to take part in the fight itself too. It tends to sell out in the weeks leading up to the event, so be sure to get a ticket in advance. If you do miss out, or just want to take your chances, you can still grab a ticket from one of the touts in Valencia.
Top tips for La Tomatina
To make the most of your time getting messy, we’d recommend doing the following:
- Wear clothing you don’t mind throwing out: Now is not the time to wear your fancy holiday clothes. Everything, from your head to your toes, is going to end up covered in tomatoes. Nothing’s going to get these tomato stains out! Bring a change of clothes too – you won’t be allowed to board a bus or train back to Valencia covered in all that mess!
- Don’t bring anything you don’t need: Leave your passport and any other valuables on your ship – it’s easy to lose things amongst the chaos!
- Wear goggles: Tomato juice in your eyes is a real recipe for disaster. Keep your peepers clean and wear the proper protection during the fight
- Don’t wear flip-flops or sandals: With all those tomatoes, the ground gets slippy – and fast! In the mad rush, toes are liable to get trod on too. Wear something sturdy that’ll keep you upright – and don’t mind getting messy.
- Stay hydrated: It’s August in Spain. You guessed it, things’ll heat up. Make sure you’ve had plenty of water before the throwing starts.
- Arrive early: The centre fills up quickly, so be sure to secure a spot – you don’t want to miss out on that ham grabbing either!
Prefer less mess with your Mediterranean holiday? No worries! Check out our range of Western Mediterranean cruises – where the only tomatoes are the ones on your plate – right here.