Tomatina: Bucket List Activity? Booking For Bunol Vacation Now.

I am not a fan of tomatoes, but for this, I'll make an exception. And I'm thinking just a 40 km drive from Valencia and the Mediterranean Sea is not a bad locale to celebrate. Since 1945 It has been held on the last Wednesday of August, during the week of festivities of Buñol. Origin theories of the celebration differ but the main one is that disgruntled townspeople rioted and attacked city councilmen with tomatoes during a town celebration. Sounds like a great idea! Can we adopt this in the United States, especially during the presidential election years?

People lie in a puddle of squashed tomatoes during Tomatina. Trucks dump 150 tons of ripe tomatoes for some 22,000 participants, many from abroad, to throw during the hour-long morning festivities. Crowds of people throw tomatoes at each other during Tomatina in the village of Bunol. The streets of this eastern Spanish town are awash with red pulp as thousands of people pelt each other with tomatoes. – flipboard.com

If you are interested, plan ahead and check out all the rules. In 2013, town officials introduced an entry fee and limited the number of participants, citing concerns over safety. The town has charged $12 to join in. Only about 22,000 people are allowed to attend for safety reasons.

Rules of the festival

The city council follows a short list of instructions for the safety of the participants and the festival:

The tomatoes have to be squashed before throwing to avoid injuries.

No other projectiles except tomatoes are allowed.

Participants have to make way for trucks and lorries.

After the second shot indicative of ending the tomato hurl, no tomatoes should be thrown.

Here are some of the pictures from this past Wednesday's fun.