Throwing tomatoes at one another. What couldn’t be more fun than that? This is the philosophy behind La Tomatina, a tomato festival held in the town of Buñol (province of Valencia, Spain). Every year, on the last Wednesday of August, tomato juice flows through the streets. And it has inspired a tomato battle of sorts in the USA as well, coming to states like Texas, Colorado, California, and Washington.
In Spain, La Tomatina has been going on since the 50s. The festival was declared a “Fiesta of International Tourist Interest” in the early 2000s. The funny food fight lasts 1 hour.
Here’s a clip from 2007:
Here’s another with commentary by Kelly Packard:
Inspired by La Tomatina, Tomato Battles are also held in Sutamarchán (Colombia), San José de Trojas (Costa Rica), Dongguan (China), Quillón (Chile), and multiple cities in the United States including Reno and Copper Mountain. There are upcoming tomato battles in Dallas (November 12, 2011), SoCal (October 22, 2011), and Seattle (September 24, 2011). USA Residents who want to throw red fruit at each other, buy your tickets to upcoming battles here.
Images and Video from the Copper Mountain tomato battle a few months ago:
