Tomatoes festival in spain: Tomatina Festival 2023 Official Tickets. La Tomatina Experts!

La Tomatina 2023 | Tomato Throwing Tomatina Festival Tours

La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol (history) near to Valencia in Spain. Thousands upon thousands of people make their way from all corners of the world to fight in this ‘World’s Biggest Food Fight’ where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.

Prior to 2013 anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 (reported to be 50,000 in 2012) people crammed into this huge tomato fight, greatly expanding Bunol’s normal 9,000 person population. Since 2013 official ticketing has been in place limiting the number of participants to just 20,000 lucky people.

There is limited accommodation for people who come to La Tomatina, so many people take the easier option of staying in nearby Valencia just 38km to Bunol by bus or train. In preparation for the dirty mess that will ensue, shopkeepers use huge plastic covers on their storefronts in order to protect them from the carnage.

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When is La Tomatina

• La Tomatina 2023 : 30th of August
• La Tomatina 2024 : 28th of August
• La Tomatina 2025 : 27th of August

What Happens at La Tomatina

At around 11am many trucks haul the bounty of tomatoes into the centre of the town, Plaza del Pueblo. The tomatoes come from Extremadura, where they are less expensive. Technically the festival does not begin until one brave soul has climbed to the top of a two-story high, greased-up wooden pole and reached the coveted ham at the top. In practice this process takes a long time and the festival starts despite no one reaching the meaty prize. The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing of water cannons, and the chaos begins. Once it begins, the battle is generally every man for himself.

After an one hour the fighting ends. At this point, no more tomatoes can be thrown. The cleaning process involves the use of fire trucks to spray down the streets, with water provided from a Roman aqueduct. The authorities seem more concerned with cleaning the town than cleaning the visitors, so some people find water at the Bunol River to wash themselves, although some kind residents will hose passers-by down. Once the tomato pulp is flushed, the ground is clean due to the acidity of the tomato.

La Tomatina Tours including Official Entry Tickets

The Rules of La Tomatina

• Do not bring bottles or hard objects as they can cause accidents and hurt other participants
• Do not rip other people’s T-shirts
• You must squash the tomatoes before throwing them as this reduces the impact
• Ensure you keep a safe distance from the lorries
• As soon as you hear the second shot, you must stop throwing tomatoes

Useful Advice

• Wear closed shoes that you do not mind throwing away afterwards. If you wear flip-flops, you may get hurt, or you could lose them easily during the battle
• Wear old clothes, or clothes that you are not planning to wear again. They will most likely end up damaged from being ripped or incredibly dirty
• You may find goggles useful. However, it is safer if you just ensure that you always have something clean to wipe your eyes with. The best thing is if you tuck your T-Shirt into your shorts to keep the bottom part of your T-shirt clean and dry
• If you are planning to take pictures, bring a waterproof camera!
• If you are not from Bunol, and you want to stay overnight, don’t forget to look for and secure accommodation in advance
• Do not miss the Palojabon – a greased pole with a Spanish ham at the top. Whoever can climb the pole and get the ham can keep it!
• Stay safe and enjoy the festivities as much possible

How did La Tomatina Start

The tomato fight has been a strong tradition in Bunol since 1944 or 1945. No one is completely certain how this event originated. Possible theories on how the Tomatina began include a local food fight among friends, a juvenile class war, a volley of tomatoes from bystanders at a carnival parade, a practical joke on a bad musician, and the anarchic aftermath of an accidental lorry spillage.

One popular theory is that disgruntled townspeople attacked city councilmen with tomatoes during a town celebration. Whatever happened to begin the tradition, it was enjoyed so much that it was repeated the next year, and the year after that, and so on. The holiday was banned during the Spanish State period under Francisco Franco for having no religious significance, but returned in the 1970s after his demise.

The festival is in honor of the town’s patron saints, Luis Bertran and the Mare de Deu dels Desemparats (Mother of God of the Defenseless), a title of the Virgin Mary.

Where is Buñol

Buñol is a town and municipality in the province of Valencia, Spain and is situated approximately 38 km west of Valencia. Read about the history of Buñol

There are several ways to get to Valencia from London. If booked reasonably early availability to Valencia is good and flights are quite competitive. Easyjet fly from London Stansted, London Gatwick and Bristol. Ryanair fly from London Stansted, Liverpool, East Midlands and Dublin. Clickair fly from London Heathrow. Iberia fly from London Heathrow.

Where to Stay

Getting to Bunol and accommodation for La Tomatina

Best Cities to Visit in Spain
Checkout our list of the five most fun cities to visit in Spain where there is loads more to enjoy than just sun, sea and sangria!

Six Unmissable Things about Valencia!
Valencia is a vibrant multi-cultural city with an ancient heart and here we bring you the best the city has to offer in terms of touristic sights and natural wonders.

Tomatina – tomato massacre in Bunyol. Spain in Russian

Tomatina, known in Spain as the La Tomatina festival, is one of the most popular and visited Spanish festivals, which has gained fame all over the world. The Feast of Tomatina takes place in the city of Bunol in the province of Valencia and is the largest tomato festival in Spain, during which more than 150 tons of tomatoes per hour turn into juice, spilling through the city streets and coloring each participant in the event.

La Tomatina or Tomato Day in Spain has received such wide publicity that today this red massacre takes place in several cities of the planet at once, borrowing the idea of ​​​​a tomato battle in Spain. Among them are the Chinese city of Guangdong province and the Colombian municipality of Sutamarchan.

Do you want to get a ripe tomato in the forehead? Dive into a puddle of tomato juice? Swim with all your heart in different styles in the blood-red river? So don’t miss the Feast of Tomatina, which takes place in Bunyol every last Wednesday of August!

La Tomatina Program

Spain’s Tomato Festival has 3 stages:

• During the first stage of the La Tomatina festival, one of the participants must climb onto a high wooden slippery pole, pre-soaked with soap, and take possession of a piece of jamon, which is on top of the pole. This is followed by a sigal, signifying the discovery of Tomatina.
• At 11:00 a.m. the tomato battle begins, broadcast in Spain on many TV channels. Most of the Tomatina participants are dressed in white to emphasize the beauty of the holiday.
• Well, the third stage, of course, is the washing of houses and the cleaning of Buñol from the tomato mess that absorbs the central streets of the city during the Tomatina holiday. Cleaning is done with ordinary water hoses.

One should not think that people come from all over the world to Bunol for the sole purpose of throwing tomatoes at each other. The La Tomatina holiday lasts for a whole week, and its program also includes performances of musical groups, dances, fireworks and other events.

The story of the appearance of the feast of Tomatina

Version I: The musician is to blame for everything

There are different versions of the appearance of La Tomatina in Spain. Some historians claim that the Tomatina festival began a long time ago. A certain local ruler appeared at the market of the town of Bunol, playing a musical instrument. He did it so badly that the locals began to grab tomatoes from the stalls and throw them at the inept musician. Gradually, everyone present was drawn into the tomato fight.

Version II: Showdown with tomatoes in Spain

Another version claims that the story of the appearance of the Tomatina holiday is connected with a festive procession in 1945, in which “giants” traditionally participated – people carrying huge human figures over their heads, while hiding themselves in their robes.

A group of young people, wanting to stand out from the crowd, began to push the “giants”. One of the mummers fell, and when he got up with difficulty, he began to beat everyone who came to hand. A scuffle ensued. The case took place near the stalls with vegetables and the fighters staged a tomato fight until law enforcement forces dispersed the fighters. Mutual grievances were not forgotten, and a year later, again on the last Wednesday of August, the fighters gathered in the same place to continue the disassembly, using tomatoes, which in Spain became symbols of the summer holiday.

This time they brought tomatoes with them so as not to pay for damaged goods, like a year ago. The tomato fight will take place again until the police stop the “battle”. In subsequent years, the authorities constantly tried to prevent what the people have already received the name of La Tomatina, but in one way or another, since then, the day of tomatoes in Spain has taken place every year.

In 1950, the Buñol authorities did not interfere with the feast of Tomatina. A year later, some of the participants in Tomatina were detained by the police and taken to the city prison. But other townspeople showed solidarity with the “fighters” – they expressed their protest so actively that the detainees were released. Under the pressure of the townspeople, the Tomatina holiday was finally officially allowed by the authorities.

Burial of a tomato in Spain

Since then, every year more and more people have participated in the Tomatina festival, and the tomato battle in Spain has been heard in other places. From year to year, entertainment began to go further and further, the participants were no longer limited to just a tomato fight, in Spain they also began to pour water on each other, throw them into fountains, and also attack people who did not participate in the massacre, but only watched what was happening.

Naturally, among the injured spectators of Tomatina there were often very influential people. And again, the city authorities banned Tomatina, and violators were threatened with large fines and even imprisonment. The townspeople were so upset that in 1957 La Tomatina was not held that they organized a crowded demonstration, calling it “The Funeral of the Tomato”. In the center of the procession, a group of guys carried a coffin with a huge tomato, and the march was led by an orchestra playing funeral marches.

Tomatina in Spain – an international festival

Starting in 1959, under pressure from the townspeople, the municipality once again permitted La Tomatina, but subject to certain rules. For example, one of them was the giving of a signal, which meant the beginning and end of the feast of Tomatina. It was strictly forbidden to throw tomatoes before the starting signal and after the final one.

In 1975 La Tomatina was taken over by the monks of the Order of St. Luis Bertrand, Buñol’s patron, who began to supply tomatoes for the Tomato Festival in Spain (before that, the townspeople brought tomatoes with them). Since 1980, the mayor’s office has been organizing and supplying the holiday, and every year the number of tons of scattered tomatoes and the number of participants in the Tomatina festival in Spain, who began to come from all over the world, began to increase. Surprisingly, the huge and increasing number of participants of Tomatina or Tomato Day in Spain has not yet given rise to a single serious incident.

Admirers of La Tomatina should be grateful to the townspeople of Buñol, who overcame the inertia of the authorities and, with their perseverance and love of life, ensured that the La Tomatina festival survived to this day in the form it is: a fun, unforgettable, crowded folk festival.

Rules for participation in La Tomatina

If you are going to participate in Tomatina, you must comply with the following rules:

• Do not bring bottles or anything that could cause an accident.
• It is forbidden to tear clothes on the participants of the Tomatina holiday.
• Crush the tomato before throwing it.
• You have to give way to trucks bringing tomatoes to Bunol for Tomatina.
• After the second signal, the tomato fight must be stopped immediately.

When and how to visit the Tomatino festival in Spain

So, Tomatina is held in Bunol, located 50 km from Valencia. The culmination of the Tomato Festival in Spain, the tomato massacre, takes place on the last Wednesday of August.

There are three ways to become a member of the Tomatina holiday:

• Take bus 265a in Valencia, which will take you directly to Bunol.
• Take the suburban train C3 from the Valencia-Sant Isidre station.
• Take the A3 motorway towards Madrid /Aeropuerto and take the exit 322 VP- 3031/ Buñol.

If you are planning to spend an unforgettable time in Spain and become a participant in one of the holidays of a hospitable country, the Center for Business and Life Services in Spain “Spain in Russian” reminds you that you can contact us with any question and we will organize your trip in the best way! Contact us by phone numbers listed on the site!

Need help in Spain? The service center “Spain in Russian” is more than 100 types of services in Russian in any region of Spain.

+7 495 236 98 99 or +34 93 272 64 90, [email protected]

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