La Tomatina or The Tomatina Festival is largest food fight festival that is held every year on the last Wednesday of August in the town of Bunol in the Valencia region of Spain. The participants throw tomatoes at each other and paint the whole town square red with tomato juice.
At around 10am festivities begin with the first event of the Tomatina, "palo jabón". The goal is to climb a greased pole with a ham on top. As this happens, the revellers work into a frenzy of singing and dancing whilst being showered in water from hoses. Once someone is able to drop the ham off the pole, the start signal for the tomato fight is given. The signal for the onset is at about 11 when a loud shot rings out, and the chaos begins.
The history of the festival dates back to 1950 when the council allowed the party to happen. Tomatina faced a lot of opposition from the officials and was banned a number of times before the final approval in 1959.
Since 1980 the City Council provides participants with tomatoes, each year a greater tonnage than the previous year. Visitors became attracted to the event and in 2002 it was declared a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest. In 2008 a soundtrack was created, the song of the Tomatina "Todo es del mismo color" created by the Bunyolense rock band "Malsujeto".
La Tomatina Festival will soon be seen in the “Ik Junoon (Paint it Red)” song of the upcoming Bollywood flick “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” featuring Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin. The movie is due to be released on July 15th 2011.
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