Tom Powell
TAKE 20,000 festival-goers, put them in a small Spanish town with tonnes and tonnes of tomatoes and you’ve got a summer festival even messier than a wet and muddy Glastonbury.
La Tomatina, held on August 27 in the Valencian town of Bunol, is an outdoor fiesta like no other.
Tourists have traditionally travelled from all over the world to join in the tomato-flinging jamboree.
But after some 40,000 people crammed themselves into the town’s narrow streets in 2012, the town hall decided to limit attendance to 20,000 over health and safety concerns.
The chaos traditionally begins at 11am, when a loud shot rings out and several trucks launch an abundance of tomatoes in the main plaza.
The tomatoes are grown in Extremadura specifically for the festival, as they are cheaper and lacking taste.
Technically, they have to be squashed before being thrown at other revellers. Of course, a whole tomato to the face can be brutal.
