4 Things You Must Know About Spain`s La Tomatina Festival

Festivals are meant to be celebrated and every country and city has their own festivals that they love to celebrate according to their tradition. Some festival includes color; some are sober while some are the wackiest of all and Spanish festivals have the reputation for being whacky.

La Tomatina festival is the wackiest of all and it will be an understatement that this crazy festival is famous all over the world. Attracting thousands of tourists from all over the world, every year, the end of August sees the alleys and streets of the small Valencian town of Bunol become rivers of tomato-juice. Why? That is because the festival is celebrated by pelting over-ripe or squashed tomatoes on each other.

If you are willing to be a part of this grand festival of Spain, here are few fun facts about the festival that you must know before booking cheap flights from London to Spain and joining the Spanish comrade:

1.       Biggest Food Fight- La Tomatina festival is one of the biggest food fight festival in the world. Every year, some 40,000 people come to the small town of Bunol for just one day to pelt each other with tomatoes. You too can be a part of this festival by booking cheap flights from London to Spain.

 

2.       Originated from an interesting incident- The festival is not an ancient tradition or a modern interpretation of some Spanish culture. In fact the festival originated from a street brawl in 1945, when a rowdy local started pelting everyone with vegetables during a somber street parade. Few young people retaliated and a huge food fight broke out. The following year, same people repeated the incident by bringing their own supply of tomatoes and the police had to intervene. The police broke up the new tradition for few years, but the popularity of festival brought it back eventually.

3.       No tomatoes are wasted- Although the fight only lasts for one hour, over 150,000 over-ripe tomatoes are used for pelting. The tomatoes used in the festival are low in quality, inferior in taste and probably are never going to be eaten which is why they are bought very cheaply from the Extremadura region of Spain.

4.       It begins with ham- On the day of La Tomatina festival, a jamun is hung on the top of a greasy pole in the crowded town square. The aim is to be the first person to climb up the slippery pole and retrieve the ham. The crowd sings and chants to encourage the participants and the moment the ham is dislodged, a loud signal goes off, the trucks loaded with tomatoes appear and chaos ensues.

If you are planning to attend the festival with your friends, you must bring along swimming goggle sand white clothes to keep the puree out of your eyes and nose with white clothes to see how much of a mess you have endured. So gear up for the wackiest, the craziest and the most celebrated festival of Spain this August and book cheap flights from London to Spain from our website flightsnfare.co.uk.