La Tomatina

800px-arrojando_tomates_desde_un_camin_-_la_tomatina_2010

 (photo: flydime)

Bad entertainers sometimes expect the tomatoes to fly, but in this little town (pop. 9000) thirty-eight kilometres from Valencia you can find yourself covered in red juice for apparently no reason.

There is one of course. You will have lucked-in on the annual tomato festival - La Tomatina, which attracts 20,000-50,000 tourists and officially honours the town's patron saint - held at the height of the season when the tomatoes are at their squishy ripest. It's a free-for-all, and the juicy red fruit really flies. 

But, no, this is not a pagan tribute to the tomato gods. 

Seems it simply stems from an argument in the 1940s when tempers heated and the nearest missiles at hand were a pile of tomatoes.

Today it's a good excuse to let off steam and throw things about. Truckloads of tomatoes (an estimated 150,000kg) as it happens.

The Plaza's shopfronts cover up as soon as the missiles appear, and then the fun begins. The messy festa only lasts a couple of hours, and then it's back to the other more serious parts of the celebrations - eating and drinking, dancing and singing.

 

 

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