La Tomatina is one of the exciting festivals in Buñol which is celebrated on the last Wednesday in the month of August and is the highlight of a week-long local festival in honour of the town's patron saint, San Luis Bertràn, and the Virgin Mary.
The actual tomato throwing lasts for only two hours between 11am and 1pm. During the week leading up to the world famous tomato war, parades, fireworks, music, dancing and the paella cook-off contest draw visitors to Buñol for the annual fiesta. When the day of the great battle dawns, local shopkeepers diligently cover their shop fronts with sheets of plastic and twenty thousand local folk and tourists take to the streets, as trucks loaded with around 125,000 kilos of ripe ammo roll into the Plaza del Pueblo. Between 11am and 1pm, the streets are awash with juice, pavements are spattered with pulp and the participants transformed into walking, talking Bloody Marys. As soon as the siren signaling the end of La Tomatina Festival is sounded, the massive clean up operation gets underway. Water is pumped from a nearby Roman aqueduct and by mid afternoon there¹s barely any trace left of the messy melée that has taken place, much less the stench of fruit lingering in the streets.
La Tomatina Festival is the ultimate free for all. You don¹t need to a ticket to take part, just turn up and muck in. Because most people who take part in the La Tomatina Festival come to Buñol on a day trip from Valencia, all you'll need is money for your train or bus fare and perhaps for a bite to eat after the battle.
Apart from La Tomatina Festiva, there isn't much in Buñol to keep the visitor out of mischief. It is worth spending time in nearby Valencia, which is renowned for its lively nightlife and as the birthplace of paella. The fantastic Las Fallas festival is held in Valencia in March, when the people parade through the streets with 50ft high papier-mâché sculptures (known as fallas) which are constructed by local artisans and made to look like politicians or celebrities. |
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