Wednesday, August 25, 2010


Largest tomato fight  - world record set by La Tomatina

  BUNOL, Spain -- More than 45,000 people from all over the world descended on the small Valencian town for their annual tomato-pelting festival, known as La Tomatina , using 100 tonnes of ripe tomatoes to pelt each other and setting the new world record for the Largest tomato fight .

 Photo: Revellers pelt each other with tomatoes during the world's biggest tomato fight at La Tomatina festival on in Bunol, Spain.
( enlarge photo )

La Tomatina, The World's Largest tomato fight is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain.

    The spectacle - known as Tomatina - was started accidentally in 1945, and drew an estimated 45,000 visitors to the village of 10,000 residents.

    Spain's rail company Renfe had to schedule 17 special trains to bring visitors to the village for the one-hour fight, which was watched over by more than 100 police and 120 volunteers.

    Bunol spends about 90,000 euros (114,000 dollars) annually on the Largest tomato fight in The World , including the cost of the tomatoes, toilets, showers, cleaning and health personnel, Bunol culture official Pilar Garrigues said. "This fiesta is in our blood," Garrigues said. "We are proud of the Tomatina, which has put Bunol on the world map."

    Lorries dumped the tomatoes in the village centre before the sound of a firecracker launched the battle. Participants were advised to squash the tomatoes before throwing them.

   No other weapons are allowed, though many of the fighters also tear off their wet t-shirts and hurl them at each other.

 The Tomatina is believed to have begun in August 1945, when a scuffle broke out between young members of a carnival crowd, and fruit stalls were overturned.

   Dictator Francisco Franco tried to ban the tomato war for more than a decade, until it was finally made legal in 1957.    

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