La Tomatina is a festival held on a Wednesday to wards the end of August in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region in Spain . Tens of thousands of participants come from all over the world to fight in a harmless battle where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
During the week leading up to the world famous tomato war, parades, fireworks, music, dancing and the paella cook-off contest draw visitors to Buñol for the annual fiesta. When the day of the great battle dawns, local shopkeepers diligently cover their shopfronts with sheets of plastic and twenty thousand local folk and tourists take to the streets, as trucks loaded with around 125,000 kilos of ripe ammo roll into the Plaza del Pueblo. Between 11am and 1pm, the streets are awash with juice, pavements are spattered with pulp and the participants transformed into walking, talking Bloody Marys.
The origins of La Tomatina aren’t clear with several theories explaining how Bunyol has become home to the world’s biggest tomato fight. However, the most plausible suggests that the most likely explanation dates back to 1945 when an annual parade of enormous figures with big heads (Gigantes y Cabezudos) was passing through the streets of Bunyol.
Tomatoes are grown especially for the festival in the region of Extremadura. Tomatoes from that area are usually less expensive and aren't quite as good for eating as those you might buy in a supermarket, making them ideal for throwing in the face of a friend!