Revellers play in tomato pulp during annual food fight festival La Tomatina in Spain
Revellers played in tomato pulp during the annual food fight festival La Tomatina in Spain on Wednesday 30 August.
The tomato-throwing festival takes place in the village of Buñol, near Valencia in Spain, on the last Wednesday of August each year, and this year the festival is celebrating it’s 76th anniversary.
Thousands of people from all over the world gather to take part in the festival where people throw old, overripe and low-quality tomatoes at each other for fun. Some people wear goggles to help protect their eyes from the pulp.
La Tomatina begins when a truck containing the tomatoes rolls into the Plaza del Pueblo around 11am. Next, the festival is supposed to start when someone has climbed to the top of a two-story high, greased-up wooden pole in order to grab some ham at the top. However, as this can take a long time, often the food fight starts when the water cannons start spraying.
After one hour of tomato-fighting, no more tomatoes can be thrown and the cleaning begins. This involves using fire engines to spray down the streets, and locals using brushes to clear the tomato pulp off houses and streets.
