Revelers pay up to fight with tomatoes
Print Edition
Some 20,000 revelers pelted each other with 130 tons of squashed tomatoes yesterday in a rain-drenched annual Spanish food fight known as the Tomatina.
For the first time, they were paying to take part.
Defying sheets of rain and stormy skies, masses of tomato-stained people from around the world — led by Australians, Japanese and Britons — engaged in battle in the Plaza Mayor square of Bunol, eastern Spain.
Many wore shower caps under the rain and goggles to protect their eyes from the acidic juice of the tomatoes, which must be squashed before they are hurled at fellow participants. Some people dressed as tomatoes.
In driving rain, some people who had partied through the night were singing, clapping and still taking swigs of wine and sangria.
“It is one of the most famous festivals in western Europe and it is safer than running with a bull,” said 22-year-old Brad Fisher from Sydney, who came with a tour group of 700 people wearing a mustard-colored shirt with a ketchup logo.
The Tomatina has significant advantages over Spain’s Pamplona bull-running festival, he said. “One hundred and thirty tons of tomatoes is a lot but it’s still better than a 500-kilo bull.”
This year, participants are paying a minimum of 10 euros (US$13) to take part. Prices go up to 750 euros to get up on one of the six trucks bringing in the tomatoes. Some 5,000 free tickets have been set aside for Bunol residents.
Organizers have cut the number of participants by half citing safety concerns, recruiting 180 safety officials, 50 private security, police, nine ambulances, and several helicopters.
Bunol Mayor Joaquin Masmano Palmer says the fee helped control numbers but he also said the food fight, which cost 140,000 euros to stage this year, is a heavy burden for a town with a debt of 4.1 million euros.
Among the top ticket buyers were Australians with 19.2 percent of the total, Japanese with 17.9 percent, Britons with 11.2 percent, Spaniards with 7.8 percent and Americans with 7.5 percent. About 60 percent of the tickets went to people aged 18 to 35. The oldest was 82.
The event is thought to have its roots in a food fight between children during a parade in the mid-1940s.
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