The Tomatina festival takes place annually on the last Wednesday of August in Buñol, Spain. It originated in 1945 when young people disrupted a local festival parade by throwing tomatoes at participants. This led to an impromptu tomato fight that later became a sanctioned annual event. Over the years, the town prohibited the festival due to unruly crowds, but reinstated it in 1957. Now, over 100 metric tons of tomatoes are thrown in Buñol's main square, turning the town red for an hour of messy fun attended by thousands before trucks hose down the streets.

2. Where and when does this festival
take place?

3. It all started in August 1945 when
there was a procession of „Giants and
Bigheads‟ in the villagesquare. Some
young people started messing around
and pushed the participants in the
procession, presumably because they
wanted to take part as well. One of the
participants fell over and got so
angry that he started to hit everybody
within reach, and a big fight ensued.

4. Somebody grabbed the tomatoes from a
nearby vegetable stall and people
started throwing them at each other.
However,
the police soon interfered and broke up
the fight. The responsible party was
fined and made to pay the damages. The
following year the youngsters repeated
the battle, only this time they had
brought their own tomatoes. Once again
the police broke it up, but the same
thing repeated itself year after year until

5. However, in the early fifties the town hall
prohibited the festival, which nevertheless
went on as if nothing had happened. The
participants were arrested and put in prison.
People now started petitioning for the
festival to be made legal, and they were so
persistent that the town hall eventually gave
in. But unfortunately the next year the
crowd became very unruly and threw
tomatoes and water at everybody, so also
people who only wanted to watch got hit,
amongst them some rather important local

6. banned again . In 1955 as a protest the
people of Buñol celebrated the „Funeral of
the Tomato‟. They carried a coffin with a big
tomato inside through the town
accompanied by a band which played
funeral music.
In 1957 the festival was finally approved for
good, and it has been celebrated every year
ever since
then on the last Wednesday of the month of
August.

7. The following rules have been set down by
the Buñol Town Council:
• It is illegal to bring any kind of bottles or
other objects that could cause an accident.
• You must not tear t-shirts.
• Tomatoes must be crushed before
throwing so that they don't hurt anybody.
• You must be careful to avoid the lorries
which carry the tomatoes.

9. The signal for the onset is at about 11 when a
loud shot rings out, and the chaos begins.
Several trucks throw tomatoes in abundance
in the Plaza del Pueblo. The tomatoes come
from Extremadura, where they are less
expensive and are grown specifically for the
holidays, being of inferior taste. For the
participants the use of goggles and gloves are
recommended. The estimated number of
tomatoes used are around 150,000 i.e. over 40
metric tons.

10. After exactly one hour, the fight ends
with the firing of the second shot,
announcing the end. The whole town
square is coloured red and rivers of
tomato juice flow freely. Fire Trucks
hose down the streets and participants
use hoses that locals provide to remove
the tomato paste from their bodies. Some
participants go to the pool of “los
peñones” to wash.

11. Thousands of
participants come
from all over the
world to fight in a
brutal battle
where more than
one hundred
metric tons of
over-ripe tomatoes
are thrown in the
streets.
some pictures of the
festival

12. Approximatel
y 20,000–
40,000 tourists
come to the
tomato fight,
multiplying by
several times
Buñol's
normal
population of
9,000.

13. In preparation
for the dirty
mess,
shopkeepers use
huge plastic
covers on their
storefronts in
order to protect
them from the
tomatoes.

14. The fireworks sounds
mark the begining of
the Tomatina at 11
(Tomato Fight!)

15. One hour later, the
fireworks mark the
end of the fight.
At this point, no
more tomatoes can
be thrown.