La Tomatina

By Kent Truckor – Guest blogger studying in Valencia, Spain
Today was the day of the mystical La Tomatina in Bunol, Espana. Leading up to the event I was excited about the thought of getting in the middle of a giant food fight with 30,000 other people. The idea seemed pretty interesting to me and I couldn't help my curiosity. As the day came closer, I felt a little fear deep inside, haha. It seemed the idea of being in the middle of a giant food fight was starting to get to me.
About 75 students from my school boarded to charter buses and we headed for the pueblo of Buñol west of Valencia. The town has a population of 9,000, but on the day of the La Tomatina the population swells to 30,000 plus. When we arrived, the highway was already starting to back up from all of the people arriving for the fest. It seemed that many of the people coming were in Valencia or the area specifically for La Tomatina. The fight was to begin with a gunshot at 11:00AM and last for approximately an hour.
We made our way through the town to the city center with the several thousand other travelers in town for the fest. We heard the gunshot go off and the anticipation built even more. By the time we made it close to where the fight was taking place, we saw numerous folks covered in what was tomato paste by this time.
Although we missed the start we quickly received our welcome with the flying tomatoes. Approximately every 10 minutes a large truck loaded with tomatoes would make its way down the street dumping tomatoes. A few brave soles were on back throwing tomatoes out, but they made easy target practice for those in the crowd.
The neighbors of the fight join in as well, but from a more logical standpoint. Many watch from their terrazas of their apartments and houses above. When the time is right or they feel like it is a good time, they would dump water on the rowdy crowd below. At times, this was a blessing because the tomato paste and did a number on the eyes, haha. I am not sure who enjoyed the dumping of the water more – the neighbors above or the crowd below. The whole fight ended with the sound of the second and final gunshot.
I enjoyed the festival greatly and am glad I made the trip to Bunol. It will be a memory that I doubt I will forget anytime soon.
Statistics: 30,000 plus tomato loving travelers; 100,000 Kilos of Tomatoes and 1 much wiser traveler of Spain.