La Tomatina

La Tomatina is a Spanish festival in Buñol, Spain where participants throw tomatoes at each other. Now, I happen to be a person who doesn’t like tomatoes…I know, people think I’m crazy, but there it is. So, for me, the idea of throwing tomatoes at other people is…well, just the best use for a tomato. The La Tomatina Festival is said to be the biggest food fight in the world. It gives everyone a chance to be big kids for a change. It is said that the festival began in August of 1945 as a food fight between friends, but now it has become a famous tourist attraction. Until 2013 there was no limit to the number of participants, but that year, the festival became a ticketed event for no more than 20,000, so as not to overwhelm Buñol’s population of about 9,000 people.

The festival started in a rather odd way. A group of young people gathered in the town square to watch the Giants and Big-Heads parade. During the event, one participant’s Big-Head fell off, causing them to lose their temper, lashing out in frustration. I’m not sure how they thought that was anyone’s fault, but nevertheless, chaos erupted as they started hitting everything in reach, including a vegetable stall in the market. Everything escalated from there, when the chaos sparked a wild tomato fight among the crowd, which only came to an end when local authorities stepped in to stop the chaos.

While the first “tomato fight” was spontaneous, the next year, a group of young people staged a pre-planned quarrel, bringing their own tomatoes from home. Despite local authorities breaking it up, this event marked the start of an annual tradition. It didn’t matter if the authorities stopped the fight each year, the tradition had been born, and it would not be stopped. So, in the years that followed, thousands of people joined in, inspired by the boys’ actions. La Tomatina, as it was called went on until it was banned in the early 1950s by Francisco Franco due to the festival’s lack of religious significance. Still, this did not stop the participants from celebrating the festival. They were later arrested, but the people would not have it. They protested against the prohibition and the festival was again allowed with more participants. The festival was canceled again until 1957, when residents staged a defiant “tomato funeral” as a form of protest. In this demonstration, they carried a coffin with a giant tomato inside, accompanied by a marching band playing funeral music. The protest worked, and La Tomatina was finally allowed to become an official festival.

Thanks to Javier Basilio’s report on the Spanish TV show Informe Semanal, the festival gained recognition across the rest of Spain. Over time, participation in La Tomatina Festival grew steadily, along with the enthusiasm surrounding it. In 2002, the Secretary Department of Tourism officially declared La Tomatina of Buñol a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest due to its immense popularity. The 2020 event, which was to be its 75th anniversary, was cancelled in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. It had only been cancelled once before, in 1957, for political reasons. Due to COVID-19, the 2021 event was also cancelled. In the last edition, on August 28, 2024, more than 23,000 people from 51 countries participated. It is a festival that will probably never go away. Finally, a good use for the tomato!!