00:53Spain: Tomatina revellers paint the town juicy red
Spain: Tomatina revellers paint the town juicy red
Tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of the town of Bunol in Spain on Wednesday for the annual festival of La Tomatina, an internationally famous event where teams of locals and tourists hurl tomatoes at each other. In 2013, the city hall officially limited the number of participants to 20,000, and began charging €10 ($13) for entry.
Estimates of the number of tomatoes used during the hour-long event range as high as 150,000, weighing over 40 metric tons. Fire trucks drive through the streets in the aftermath, clearing fruit pulp using jets of water.
The festival grew out of a mass brawl that occurred in 1945, when a group of young people was excluded from a traditional 'gigantes y cabezudos' (giants and big heads) parade. The participants grabbed handfuls of tomatoes to use as weapons, before being broken up by police. The fight, which became an annual tradition, eventually took on symbolic significance and since 1980 has been organised by the local government.
00:53Spain: Tomatina revellers paint the town juicy red
Tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of the town of Bunol in Spain on Wednesday for the annual festival of La Tomatina, an internationally famous event where teams of locals and tourists hurl tomatoes at each other. In 2013, the city hall officially limited the number of participants to 20,000, and began charging €10 ($13) for entry.
Estimates of the number of tomatoes used during the hour-long event range as high as 150,000, weighing over 40 metric tons. Fire trucks drive through the streets in the aftermath, clearing fruit pulp using jets of water.
The festival grew out of a mass brawl that occurred in 1945, when a group of young people was excluded from a traditional 'gigantes y cabezudos' (giants and big heads) parade. The participants grabbed handfuls of tomatoes to use as weapons, before being broken up by police. The fight, which became an annual tradition, eventually took on symbolic significance and since 1980 has been organised by the local government.