The battle with tomatoes made the street of Bunol in red goo on Wednesday in Spain's Tomatina festival, a fiesta that draws thousands each year for "the world's biggest food fight". Locals and visitors from all over the world flocked into the eastern town of Bunol, as mushy tomatoes rained from the backs of trucks and flew in every direction. "It was pretty fun, squashing and throwing them. It was raining tomatoes. If you go down to pick up a tomato, you might not come back up" said Neethu Bhas, a software engineer from Kerala, after the actions.
The estimated number of tomatoes used are around 150,000 i.e. over 40 metric tons.The locals covered the walls of their shops and houses with blue tarpaulins to avoid splattering of tomatoes and some even cleaning the splattered tomatoes from the walls in regular intervals. Giordano Mahr, 75, saw his favourite town centre bar boarded up on Wednesday to shield it from splashed tomato juice, but he was having no agony in doing that . "This is a unique fiesta. We really enjoy it. It brings a lot of benefits to the town," he said.
The privatisation of the lucrative event has sparked squabbling among politicians in the town and it shed shadows to one of Spain's peculiar and best-known tourist draws. From 2013 onwards, the Bunol Town council has been charging a government tax of 10 Euro per person for participating in the event.
The Tomatina festival is held every year in the Valencian town of Buñol, a town located 30 km from the Mediterranean. It is held on the last Wednesday of August, during the week of festivities of Buñol. lt started the last Wednesday of August in 1945 when some young people splashing tomatos while watching the Giants and Big-Heads figures parade in Bunol.The Bunol town council took charge of the event from 1980 and have been organizing the event afterwards.
