Tomato fight in Spanish town
Updated: 2007-08-30 10:21
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A reveller swims in tomato pulp during the annual "Tomatina" (tomato fight) in the Mediterranean village of Bunol, near Valencia, August 29, 2007. The origin of the tomato fight is disputed - everyone in Bunol seems to have a favourite story - but most agree it started around 1940, in the early years of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. [Reuters] |
BUNOL, Spain -- Tens of thousands of warriors for a day hurled tons of ripe tomatoes at each other Wednesday in an annual food fight that transforms this Spanish town into a sea of red mush.
On the cue of a rocket fired from town hall, municipal trucks hauled 117 tons of plum tomatoes into the main square and dumped them, setting the stage for one hour of good-natured warfare.
"It has been great, excellent, crazy, fantastic," said Alan Doyle, 21, of Dublin, Ireland, who was attending the festival called the Tomatina for the first time.
"It's like a mosh pit in a rock concert; you just keep going," he said. "The street was like a red river."
A second rocket signaled it was time to cease hostilities, and Bunol residents used garden hoses to spray down the tomato tossers and the rest of the town.
The event has its roots in a food fight between childhood friends and has become something of a calling card for Bunol, which is 25 miles north of Valencia on Spain's east coast.
The Tomatina is held each year on the last Wednesday in August.
The festival draws tens of thousands of revelers from around Spain and abroad, including Japan, Australia and the United States. An estimated 40,000 people took part this year.
Doyle, who serves in the army in Ireland, learned about the festival while vacationing in Spain and did not want to miss it. "I recommend it to everyone who wants to have a great time," he said. "I'll definitely come back."
Local legend holds that the event began in the mid-1940s after a group of youngsters waged a food fight near a vegetable stand on the town square. They met again the next year and pelted each other - and passers-by - to start the annual tradition.
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