La Tomatina: The Tomato Throwing Festival

 

The World's Largest Tomato’s fight every year in the month of August, a town Buñol in Spain arranged a La Tomatina war. It’s the world’s biggest food war! Many people around the world come to throw tomatoes each other. In 2024, about 22,000 participants took part in this funny event. They tossed an impressive 120 tons of tomatoes at one another! That’s quite a lot!

The Story behind La Tomatina war is:

It became a major tourist attraction in 1945 when some friends decided to have a fun food fight. Even though Francisco Franco banned it for a while in the early 1950s because it didn’t have any religious meaning, people kept celebrating! Finally, in 1957, it was officially back on.

What happens during the Event?

This wild event goes down on the last Wednesday of August. Everything starts with a loud siren ringing at 11 am. Then, trucks filled with tomatoes from Extremadura roll into the town square where everyone is waiting eagerly. To keep things safe, they squish the tomatoes before throwing them. The fight lasts for one hour! By then, the square is all covered in mushy red stuff.

 In 2013, they set a cap of 20,000 people and they started selling tickets to keep things organized properly. Folks who live in Buñol can join for free! But tourists need to grab tickets that start at about 15 euros.

Fame Around the World

Guess what? Her name in the La Tomatina entered the Guinness Book of World Records.! It has even inspired similar events elsewhere like the Colorado-Texas Tomato War in the U.S. & a Tomatina festival in Colombia.