Every August, thousands of people take part in the world’s most insane food fight.

Carnage and mayhem can be the only words to describe this festival.  Thousands of people cram the tight streets of Buñol, and take aim at anybody and everybody!

One of the biggest dates in the Spanish calendar, La Tomatina is a week long festival, which concludes with a massive Tomato fight.  La Tomatina takes place in a village called Buñol just outside Valencia on the last Wednesday of August.

Where did it all begin?

It originally began in 1945, when boys began arguing and took their anger out on a vegetable stall.  The police broke it up but that laid the foundations for a yearly meet up to throw vegetables at each other, and eventually tomatoes became the only weapon of choice!

What does the day consist of?

The day starts at 11am.  A mammoth truck holding over 100 metric tonnes of tomatoes arrives in Plaza Del Pueblo, the town center.  They mayhem is not allowed to start until two water cannons are fired.  Upon this sound, all hell breaks loose in the world’s most insane food fight.

After an hour, the second shot from the water cannons is sounded, upon which all tomatoes would have been thrown.  Authorities then commence the clean-up, with firetrucks meticulously combing the streets with their hoses until the streets are clean once again.

There is no such luck for the visitors, as many people have to make do with bathing in the river that passes through town.

Do people actually have a good time?

If you suffer from claustrophobia, I really don’t think this is for you.  However, if you like getting a bit dirty and have always dreamed of throwing tomatoes at anyone you have ever wanted, this just may be for you!

An Australian lady was asked at the 2018 festival “would you go again?” to which she replied “**** yeah, it was ******* awesome!”

There are three main rules that people must comply with:

• Soften the tomatoes before throwing them.
• Do not carry any hard objects with you to avoid harm to others.
• When you hear the second cannon, throwing must stop.

Where can I get tickets?

Over the last few years, there have been huge numbers of people attending the festival, causing safety concerns among the organisers.  Now, authorities are forced to limit the numbers of partakers to 20,000 people.  Tickets can be purchased here.

Where to stay?

Buñol is tiny town with a population of 9,000 people, making finding accommodation problematic.  Consequently, many people are forced to stay in the nearby town of Valencia,  located 38km away.