La Tomatina, the famous tomato-throwing festival, will be held this year on Aug. 31, the last Wednesday of August. Thousands of revellers will paint the town red with thousands of tomatoes.
People from across the world travel to Buñol in Valencia, Spain, every year in August to celebrate this festival. This year, organisers have planned to supply an estimated 160,000 tomatoes – around 150 tonnes worth – for the festival in six trucks, according to the Local. Last year, approximately 145, 000 tonnes of tomatoes were used in the festival and this year the organisers have increased the quantity of the tomatoes.
The popularity of the Tomatino festival has increased in the recent years with around 45,000 people attending it. Due to the increase in demand, the organisers have now made Tomatino festival a ticketed event to limit the number of tourists, the daily reported.
Only 22,000 tickets are available, out of which 5,000 tickets are reserved for residents, while the 17,000 tickets are available for the non-residents for a fee of €10 for the privilege. For tickets, check here and for accommodation check here.
La Tomatina has been going on since mid-1940s and it takes place on the last Wednesday of August. The festival of throwing tomatoes started after a food fight broke out near a vegetable store in Buñol in 1945. The localities enjoyed the fight so much that they decided to do the same next year.
Rules on how to play the Tomatina festival:
- To avoid injuries, squash the tomatoes before throwing it on someone.
- Apart from tomatoes, no other projectiles are allowed.
- Participants will have to make way for trucks and lorries filled with tomatoes.
