La Tomatina: The World’s Largest Tomato Fight

This year marked the 70th anniversary of the La Tomatina Festival, which takes place annually in the small town of Buñol, Spain. The story is that on the last Wednesday of August in 1945, a young group of friends attended the Giants and Big-Head Figures Parade in the town’s square. They decided to accompany a musician in the parade, but being a rowdy group, they caused one of the performers to fall from a float. The performer became furious and started knocking everything over, up and down the street. One was a market stand full of tomatoes that would be picked up by a crowd of people and thrown at each other.

Eventually, the police would break everything up, ending the fight. The following year on the last Wednesday of August, the same group of young people decided to bring their crates of tomatoes to the same town square to reenact the tomato fight. Police again would break the fight up annually until the town in the late 50s finally approved it.

Today, the tomato fight is known internationally and attended by people from all over the world. Attending this event has always been something I’ve always wanted to do, and I pretty much planned my entire trip to Europe around it (no, I did). But I was not mentally prepared for how crazy the festival was before the tomato fight started.

After everyone has chugged cups of sangria and started gathering on the tiny street in Buñol, the ‘Palo jabón’ is prepared and risen.

This is a giant pole covered in lard, with a ham hung at the top. Whoever can climb up the pole and grab the ham keeps it. It seems simple, right? Well, this year, no one successfully grabbed the ham.

People were climbing on each other’s backs, stepping on others’ faces, and literally going ham for a ham. It would take a team effort to grab the ham, but everyone was selfish and pushing each other down. I have no idea how this became a tradition before the fight, but I think it’s just a way to keep the drunk participants entertained until the trucks of tomatoes come.

All the locals watch from their balconies above and throw buckets of water on everyone waiting below, prepping us for the tomatoes we are about to be covered in. The fight started at 11 am and would last for only an hour. The first shot sound would signal the start of the fight; multiple trucks would squeeze between people on the streets, dumping loads of tomatoes.

The rules are that the tomatoes are supposed to be smashed before throwing…but who follows the rules.

I was hit multiple times in the head and face with a solid tomato, which did not feel good. Manuel even came out of the fight with a small black eye. The number of tomatoes was a little bit overwhelming at times, especially when it was in your eyes, and their acidity would cause your eyes to burn. (Tip: bring good googles)

There were way more tomatoes than I imagined. After all the trucks had been dumped, the tomatoes almost came to my knees.

Eventually, after an hour of bathing in tomatoes, the second shot is heard, and no more tomatoes are to be thrown. Everyone starts to clear the street, and the locals are friendly enough to hose everyone down outside their houses. La Tomatina was the craziest event I have ever witnessed or participated in, but I would totally do it again in the future.

Next time I would be better prepared and bring some scuba goggles and maybe a shield, though. Below is some footage from the event that doesn’t even do the amount of craziness justice.

Know Before You Go

• Bring cash and snacks! When we arrived in Buñol, all the stores only accepted cash. Being super hungry from no breakfast, we couldn’t buy much to eat until we returned to Valencia.
• Selfie sticks are not allowed into the event, so you may want to leave these on the bus.
• Bring your own goggles, do not buy from the vendors, as the quality is terrible and will do nothing for you.
• Wear clothes you don’t mind having to throw away after, including shoes. We bought some knock-off Vans/Converse for around 15 euros to wear to the event. We ended up throwing them away after. Water shoes work well too.
• DO NOT WEAR SANDALS. Your feet will get stepped on multiple times.
• Be prepared to smell like tomatoes for a week, seriously. You’ll have tomatoes in every crevice of your body.
• If you have thick hair like me, it’ll probably take 3-4 showers before you get all the tomatoes out. If you have blonde hair, it’ll have a red hue to it after.
• Be prepared to get bruised/black eyes. A lot of the tomatoes are not smashed and not even ripe yet. If you get hit in the face with one, you may have minor bruising.
• The acidity from the tomatoes burns! Do not try to rub your eyes with your hands or
• Have fun! I mean, you’re at the world’s largest food fight!