La Tomatina

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La Tomatina:  30,000 mostly inebriated tourists, 40,000 pounds of ripe tomatoes, 1 small town square, 1 obscure festival.  Mix together for 1 hour.

Every year, on the last Wednesday of August, the little town of Bunol, Spain hosts the largest and messiest tomato throwing spectacle in the world.

Supposedly, ages ago, Bunol held a parade through the town square.  In order to get a better look at the parade several people began pushing and shoving through the crowd.  Other parade goers didn´t take too kindly to this and it escalated until somebody grabbed the nearest projectile from a cart of ripe tomatoes and inadvertently made Bunol history.  So we´re told.

Jenn and I arrived in Bunol, after an hour long train ride from Valencia, along with a train load of like minded festival goers all dressed in white (the traditional colour garb of La Tomatina).  From the train station it was a 10 minute walk through the town to the actual square.  Enterprising townsfolk were out in their little stands selling the essential equipment of La Tomatina - beer and goggles.  We've seen a lot of drunken debauchery in our time but the amount of people already drunk and staggering through the streets at 9 am was impressive.  And a good indication of how rowdy the festival could get.

Everybody from the tourists to townsfolk were in festival spirits.  Long wooden tables full of food, tapas and wine were set up right in the middle of the streets.  Sangria and bocadillo (sandwich) stands lined every block.  Those not drinking or eating were busy hanging long blue tarps in front of their apartments and windows.

By 10:30 am we made our way to the town square.  It was a very small square with a long narrow street winding through it and we couldn't shake the feeling that we were being herded into a pending ambush with nowhere to hide.  In the middle of the square was a 12 foot pole covered in grease with a bagged chicken attached at the top.  Once somebody was able to climb the greased pole to retrieve the chicken the festival would begin.  Weird?  Yeah, but in about an hour we would be hurling tomatos at one another.

By this time we were shoulder to shoulder in a chanting crowd cheering the many failed attempts to climb the pole.  Eventually, after much of the grease began to rub off somebody did manage to get the chicken from the top.

Then somewhere there was a BANG from a gun and a truck loaded with tomatos began making it´s way through the narrow streets.  Townsfolks on top of the trucks pelted the crowd with squished tomatoes and the crowd threw the tomatos back at the truck.  And of course at each other.   

Whole tomatos, tomato bits, tomato juice were hurled at us from every direction.  Every conceivable way to launch tomatos into the air was used - throwing, squeezing, squishing, jumping into puddles of tomato juice bits.  T shirts were removed and soaked in juice and then hurled into the air.  About four full dump trucks of tomatos made it through the streets.

In about an hour the last shot was fired signalling the end of the fight.  The aftermath was quite a macabre sight.   The streets were literally flowing red, the white walls of the buildings were covered in red arterial-like splatter and masses of people were covered in chunks of tomato guts as if they were extras in a bad horror movie. 

The crowd eventually thinned out as we all made our way to the shower stations for a welcome shower before heading back on the train.

A couple of nights later we had dinner with a couple of Italians that we met in the cafes of Valencia.  They told us about another festival in Italy where they throw ripe unpeeled oranges at one another.  Ouch. 

We will not be attending the durian throwing festival that we're sure exists somewhere in this wonderful world.

Your Truly,

Lenny and Jenn

PS.  Sadly, the only casualty of La Tomatina was our digital camera.  Best efforts were made to seal the camera in a zip lock bag but eventually tomato juice got into the bag and fried the damn thing.  Which means we don't have any post fight pictures but we're sure you can use your imagination.