La Tomatina brings together 150 tons of tomatoes and 22,000 attendees to turn Buñol into a red battlefield

Some 22,000 participants dressed in white and sprinkled with tomato pulp join in the frenzy that grips Buñol, located 40 kilometres west of Valencia, every year in the last week of August.

Seven trucks distributed 150 tons of ripe plum tomatoes to eager visitors, many of them visitors from abroad. Non-residents pay a fee of 15 euros ($16.70), while Buñol residents enjoy it for free.

“We love tomatoes, so we decided to come and we had a great time,” said Taylor, who came from Australia, adding that she and her friends would “make some spaghetti to go with the sauce.”

The start of the fight, which lasted an hour, was signaled by firecrackers that were lit when one of the contenders managed to climb a slippery, soap-covered pole to grab a leg of ham hanging from the top.

Senam from Kenya described the event as “beautiful, wonderful, creative, mind-blowing.”

Once the altercation was over, a cleaning team armed with water hoses was sent to remove the debris from the town’s streets, which were left sparkling clean thanks to the natural acidity of the tomatoes.

The fruits, grown specifically for the festival, are considered too sour for human consumption.

According to the official Tomatina website, the festival’s origins date back to a fight that occurred in 1945, when some youths trying to get a closer look at a parade knocked down one of the participants. Several people plucked tomatoes from a nearby stand as improvised projectiles until the police restored order.

The following year, young people recreated the altercation, with some even bringing their own tomatoes. The event was briefly banned in the 1950s during the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, but was resumed in 1959 with certain rules.