HEALTHPLAN MAGAZINE

La Tomatina is the well known Spanish tomato festival involving the throwing of more than one hundred tons of ripe tomatoes.

The festival is known to have started in either 1944 or 1945 but the facts as to how it began are quite unclear.  Some believe it began after a food fight amongst two young friends, others say it was born from a practical joke that was played on a musician that was playing his instrument rather badly. But one thing that is for certain is that since it began, it has been a very strong tradition in this particular Spanish region. 

The only time that the festival didn’t take place was during the times of the Spanish State period that was under the ruling of the dictator, Francisco Franco. He banned La Tomatina from taking place because it had no religious significance, but in the 1970s after his demise and to the delight of residents, the festival of La Tomatina returned! The festival now takes place to honor the town's patron saints, the Mare de Deu dels Desemparats (Mother of God of the Defenseless), a title of the Virgin Mary and Luis Bertran.

Every year in the little spanish town of Buñol, in the province of Valencia, Spain, thousands upon thousands of people, from all around the world, gather together on the last Wednesday of August to take part in one of the biggest food fights ever!

Because this festival is so popular, accommodation in Buñol is limited at this crazy time. This isn’t a problem as Buñol is only 38 km west of Valencia and is a mere 15 minute train journey away.

La Tomatina has so much going on that it has to be spread over a whole week. As well as the tomato throwing fest, which takes place towards the end of the festivities, there are parades, dancing, music and fireworks. If this isn’t enough for you, then a paella cooking competition also takes place the night before the ‘big food fight’.

The first event of Tomatina starts at 11am, when many truckloads of tomatoes are delivered to Plaza del Pueblo, the town center. Traditionally this doesn’t actually mark the beginning of the festival. This should be marked by a person trying to reach the prize of a large spanish ham, that sits at the top of a two storey pole that is covered in slippery soap. As you can imagine this isn’t as easy as it looks, so the festival is usually started before anybody even manages to reach the delicious prize!

Water cannons are fired to mark the start of the fight and then it’s every man, woman or child for themselves. 
Below are some rules that should be abided by when attending the festival.

• Anyone taking part in the fight should ensure that all tomatoes are crushed before being thrown. 
• Protective gloves and goggles should be worn. 
• No bottles or hard objects that could hurt other fellow fighters, should be brought to the festival.
• Closed in shoes should be worn NOT flip flops.
• No ripping or tearing of other peoples clothing.The fight lasts for one hour. The end is signalled by the water cannons being fired once again. When this happens the throwing of tomatoes must stop!
• You must keep your distance from the lorries.
• When the water cannons come on for the second time all tomato throwing must stop!

As you can imagine, after an hour of tomato throwing the cleaning process is an almighty task and for this reason fire trucks are brought in to get water from a Roman aqueduct and spray down the streets. As the streets are being cleaned by the trucks, the lovely local residents are on hand and only too pleased to hose down the tomato covered participants!

It is easy to get to the Valencia region from the UK as Easyjet fly from London Gatwick, London Stansted and Bristol, Iberia fly from London Heathrow and  Ryanair fly from London Stansted, East Midlands, Liverpool, and Dublin.