The biggest food fight in the world happens in Spain on the last Wednesday of August each year. It’s called La Tomatina, and thousands of tourists descend on Buñol, Spain, to throw tomatoes at each other. This year’s La Tomatina took place on Aug. 28.
The festival began on the last Wednesday of August in 1945 when a food fight broke out during a parade in Buñol. The following year, the authorities canceled the parade to avoid another potential incident. However, the same young people involved in the fight the previous year showed up with tomatoes and repeated the experience. Every year, they held a tomato fight until it became a tradition.
However, in 1957, La Tomatina was banned by Spanish dictator Franco due to having no religious significance. The townspeople jokingly marched in a funeral procession to protest this decision. They even put a large tomato in a coffin. The town brought back La Tomatina in 1959, albeit with rules limiting its length and mandating cleanup.
Today, the festival is highly organized, with up to 22,000 people allowed in. It charges the participants a small fee, which the council of Buñol uses to purchase the over 120 tons of tomatoes needed for the festival. The festival lasts an hour and prohibits people from throwing hard objects like bottles. They are also supposed to squash the tomatoes before throwing them at anyone. Though some people may be concerned about the food waste generated from this event, they need not worry because the tomatoes thrown at La Tomatina are unfit for human consumption.