The story goes that in 1944, during a traditional parade of gigantes y cabezudos (giants and big heads), a gang of men held a brawl using produce from a nearby vegetable stand as weapons. The police intervened and forced them to pay for the damage they caused, but the fight was repeated the following year with participants bringing tomatoes from home. The local council officially sanctioned the fight in the 1950s and, apart from a few cancellations, it has been an annual Buñol tradition ever since.
La Tomatina is always held on the last Wednesday in August and festivities start at around 10am. Before any fighting can take place, someone must retrieve a ham from the top of a greased pole as revellers below sing and dance while being showered with water. Once the ham is thrown from the top of the pole, the start signal is given and the tomato-throwing madness commences!
Five trucks filled with tomatoes drive through Plaza del Pueblo in the town centre, with gangs of people throwing the fruit at the people below. At the end of the fight, the whole of the town is covered in red pulp and rivers of tomato juice flow through the streets. The local fire service clean the streets with water cannons and the cobbles are left gleaming thanks to the cleaning properties of the acidic tomatoes.
Organisers of La Tomatina strongly recommend participants wear goggles - tomatoes are acidic and can sting your eyes! Regulations also stipulate that tomatoes must be squished before throwing - that way they're much less likely to cause injury.