Those who don’t know what Tomatina is are in for a shock. It is utter madness. A huge tomato fight and party in the town of Buñol, which is a stone's throw from Valencia. You can't throw stones though, only tomatoes.
Our Tomatina involved Dan and Kate
(two friends from London) who were visiting us to witness the mayhem of
Tomatina and explore the sights of Valencia. We drove to the festival in a
rented car that we covered in bin bags to stop our inevitable dripping bodies
from stealing my deposit. We wore old, throwaway clothes, goggles, and the
ladies wore shower caps and hats in an attempt to stop their hair becoming a
tomato entangled mess.
The town of Buñol is converted into a tourist hotspot for a day every August, with everyone there enjoying the paella, beer, and music. When we arrived at 9am the atmosphere was teetering, ready to explode at the drop of a tomato… But the tomatoes took their time to arrive. The build up involved athletic bodies launching themselves up a greased pole in an attempt to grab a massive jamon. If anyone managed this feat, then the tomato fight would start early. It looked like an impossible task to me and it would take a Navy seal team to reach the summit… so we had to wait for the starting pistol.
The pole was covered in grease and nobody made it further than halfway up! |
I immediately declared that if anyone threw
a tomato at me, I would go alpha male on them. This tactic didn't work…
Everyone was pelting everyone and within minutes we were covered head to toe in
citric acid juices, with chunks of fleshy fruit all over us.
The trucks that crawled down the street
contained dozens of youngsters who took aim and destroyed us street dwellers
with the tomatoes from the vehicle. I kept trying to hit one of the truck
throwers but it was difficult, especially when you can barely see a thing.
Tomatoes were smashing into faces and my eye protection was blurry so
eventually I had to remove it. My tomato throwing accuracy immediately
increased.
The tomatoes were generally old and soft
but occasionally a hard green one would fly through the air. I got hit a few
times by these and it was a painful experience. Definitely more painful than I expected.
There were rivers of tomato juices and ankle-deep puddles that had a satisfying plunge as you stepped in them. It was great fun and the fight lasted for about an hour.
There were rivers of tomato juices and ankle-deep puddles that had a satisfying plunge as you stepped in them. It was great fun and the fight lasted for about an hour.
Afterwards we were hosed down by the locals
like prison inmates, to wash the bulk of the tomatoes off. The four of us met
back up at the car and assessed the damage; everyone had a black eye, except
me. But that was it. We were fortunate not to suffer more losses on the
battlefield. The gods were looking after us that day.
We stripped off, positioned ourselves carefully on the bin bags in the car and headed to the beach to
jump in the sea and wash off the remainder of the tomatoes.
Looking back, it was a very odd experience
and one I would highly recommend if you don’t mind getting destroyed by
tomatoes.
Unfortunately, we didn't get any 360 footage of the festival - that will have to wait for
another year. But the GoPro's waterproof case turned out to also be tomato-proof, so we got some decent shots. And one official photo from the event serves as a bit of a "Where's Wally" - can you spot me? The answer is at the end of the post!