Attend La Tomatina Festival, Buñol, Spain

Add to My List Check Off

La Tomatina Festival, held annually during the week that includes the last Wednesday in August, is a celebration staged in the town of Bunol in the Valencia region of Spain. The festival is a week of food, music, parades, dancing and fireworks that includes a world famous “Tomato Fight” that breaks out on Wednesday. One legend has it that La Tomatina saw its beginning with a good old fashioned “food fight” in the mid 1940’s during a community parade; others believe that the tomato battle served as a reenactment of the townspeople protesting the actions of their councilmen. Whatever the reason, the festival has grown to attract tens of thousands of participants to this rural village in east-central Spain, not far from the Mediterranean Sea. At approximately 11:00 a.m. on the Wednesday of festival week a greased pole (called the “Palo Jamon”) is erected in the center of the town square with a large ham affixed to its top. Competition breaks out among those assembled to see who can reach the top of the pole and knock the ham from its perch. This dislodging of the ham gives rise to a singular cannon shot signaling the start of the tomato war which breaks out among the 30,000 or so assembled just to fire the red missiles at one another. Tons of past-their-prime tomatoes are trucked to the Plaza del Pueblo to insure plenty of ammunition as the revelers pelt each other with the over-ripe spheres. The smartest participants are adorned with goggles and wear clothes that would otherwise be discarded. Another round from the cannon signals the end of hostilities which allows the crimson-stained participants to rinse themselves in fire hoses or with a dip in the Bunol River. The town of Bunol is not able to accommodate all the visitors during La Tomatina and what lodging exists is reserved many months in advance so many of the participants travel from Valencia for the festivities. Buses and trains ready to transport festival goers will be standing by each day of the celebration, a 35 kilometer trip. Other activities found during the week of La Tomatina in Bunol include a paella cooking contest and an iconic parade, “Gigantes y Cabezudos” which translates into English as “Carnival Puppets with Enormous Heads”. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain with every option for lodging and recreation as well as an international airport and the largest port on the Mediterranean Sea. Add the dream to Attend the La Tomatina Festival in Bunol on the last Wednesday in August to your itinerary for the trip of a lifetime to Spain you may be planning. You’ll have a great time participating in the festivities and perhaps get rid of some old clothes too. Due to numbers increasing each year in 2013 a limit to the number of people who can participate in Tomatina was imposed PLUS added a €10 ticket tax. If you are booking through one of the many tour companies then your ticket should be included but make sure you ask them and check that your ticket is included.

1.0 out of 5 Write a Review

No Ratings Yet

Flag as inappropriate ›