Extra
¨La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each INDEX year in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain. Tens of thousands of participants come from all over the world to fight in a brutal battle where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
¨The week-long festival features music, parades, dancing, and fireworks. On the night before the tomato fight, participants of the festival compete in a paella cooking contest. It is tradition for the women to wear all white and the men to wear no shirts. This festival started in a casual way in 1945 but wasn't officially recognized until 1952.
¨Approximately 20,000–50,000 tourists come to the tomato fight, multiplying by several times Buñol's normal population of slightly over 9,000. There is limited accommodation for people who come to La Tomatina, and thus many participants stay in Valencia and travel by bus or train to Buñol, about 38 km outside the city. In preparation for the dirty mess that will ensue, shopkeepers use huge plastic covers on their storefronts in order to protect them. They also use about 150,000 tomatoes,just about 90,000 pounds.
History
¨It all started on the last Wednesday of August 1945, when some young people were getting fresh air in the town square. The evening did not promise much, so they decided to form part of a parade that was taking place with musicians and carnival figures of giants and enormous headed individuals. The impetus of their entry caused the fall of a participant who full of rage, began to hit everyone in his way. By a quirk of fate, there just happened to be a stand of vegetables beside them. The angry crowd started throwing tomatoes at each other until the public law put an end to the vegetable battle.The following year, the young people repeated the tomato fight on a voluntary basis and brought tomatoes from home. Although the celebration was dissolved by the police during the following years, the boys, without knowing it, had made history. La Tomatina was banned in the early fifties, although this fact did not dissuade participants, eventhough some were arrested. But the will of the locals was heard and the celebration returned, more people took part in it and it became increasingly wild.
Description
¨Greasing the pole
¨At around 10 a.m., the first event of the Tomatina begins. The first feat is for the crowd to figure out how to get people to climb up a greased pole with a ham at the top. While this is happening, the group works up a frenzy singing and dancing while being showered from hoses. Once someone is able to release the ham from the pole, several trucks haul the bounty of tomatoes into the center of the town, Plaza del Pueblo. The tomatoes come from Extremadura, where they are less expensive and are grown specifically for the festival as they are not of good taste for consumption. The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing of water cannons, and the chaos begins. Those who partake in this event are strongly encouraged to wear protective safety goggles and gloves. In addition, they must squish the tomatoes before throwing for safety precautions. After exactly one hour, the fighting ends when the water cannons are fired once more to signal the end. 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.
Rules
¨If you want La Tomatina to continue being fun and to run smoothly, kindly follow the rules that the City Hall of Buñol recommends:
¨Do not carry bottles or hard objects, they can cause accidents and hurt your fellow battlers
¨Do not break T-shirts or throw them around
¨Please crush the tomatoes before you launch them, the blow will be less painful
¨Keep a safe distance with the trucks
¨Stop throwing tomatoes when you hear the second shot
Implements
¨SWIIMMING GLASSES
¨MASKS
¨TOMATOES
Location -setting
It is on:
BUÑOL
¨MADRID
¨VALENCIA
¨SEVILLA
¨AND OTHER PARTS OF SPAIN
PICTURES

BIBLIOGRAPHY
¨GOOGLE.COM
¨AND THEN THE PAGE THAT SAID PAGE OFICIAL OF TOMATINA BUÑOL