Largest tomato fight - world
record set by La Tomatina
BUNOL, Spain -- More than 45,000 people from
all over the world descended on the small Valencian town for
their annual tomato-pelting festival, known as La Tomatina,
using 100 tonnes of ripe tomatoes to pelt each other and setting
the new world record for the Largest
tomato fight.
La Tomatina, The World's
Largest
tomato fight
is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August
each year in the town of Buņol in the Valencia region of Spain.
The spectacle - known as Tomatina
- was started accidentally in 1945, and drew an estimated
45,000 visitors to the village of 10,000 residents.
Spain's rail company Renfe had to
schedule 17 special trains to bring visitors to the village
for the one-hour fight, which was watched over by more than
100 police and 120 volunteers.
Bunol spends about 90,000 euros (114,000
dollars) annually on the Largest
tomato fight in The World , including the cost of
the tomatoes, toilets, showers, cleaning and health personnel,
Bunol culture official Pilar Garrigues said. "This fiesta
is in our blood," Garrigues said. "We are proud of the Tomatina,
which has put Bunol on the world map."
Lorries dumped the tomatoes in the village
centre before the sound of a firecracker launched the battle.
Participants were advised to squash the tomatoes before throwing
them.
No other weapons are allowed, though many of
the fighters also tear off their wet t-shirts and hurl them
at each other.
The
Tomatina is believed to have begun in August 1945,
when a scuffle broke out between young members of a carnival
crowd, and fruit stalls were overturned.
Dictator Francisco Franco tried to ban the tomato
war for more than a decade, until it was finally made legal
in 1957.
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