Buñol celebrates the Tomatina: 145 tonnes of tomatoes thrown by 22,000 participants
Thursday, August 30, 2018 @ 2:03 PM
THIS year's world-famous tomato-throwing festival has once again left rivers of 'blood' in the streets and wrecked the clothing of visitors from all five continents, who caused the population of the host town to swell to 320% of its usual size.
Buñol – about 20 kilometres west of Valencia off the A-3 Valencia-Madrid motorway – is normally a sleepy market town of 10,000 inhabitants with a moderate British expat community settled there and in neighbouring towns.
Except on the last Wednesday of August every year, that is.
This, known as La Tomatina, is the date when lorry-loads of ripe tomatoes are poured into the main square at 11.00 on the dot, and participants – many of whom have travelled from as far away as Japan or Australia – get exactly an hour to hurl them at everyone else.
Nobody is allowed to start before the horn blows, and when it sounds again at noon, they have to stop right there.
Chucking tomatoes at faces or heads, or pulling at people's clothing, is not allowed, but the impact of 145 tonnes of salad fruit means whatever participants are wearing at the time will no longer be worn again, or even suitable for cleaning the car with.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com