The biggest food fight in the world
Every summer in Bunol (Spain) they hold the biggest tomato fight in the world. La Tomatina festival attracts revellers from around the world to come and throw rotten tomatoes at each other in this fruit-based street battle. It takes place on the last Wednesday of August (2020 will be the 26th of August).
It started in 1945 in a spontaneous fashion during a ‘big heads’ festival where people parade through the streets wearing giant novelty heads. A group of people thought it would be fun to throw tomatoes at them and it escalated into a city-wide tomato fight.
The following year they arranged to come back and do it again and it became an annual tradition. Tomatina was banned twice due to safety fears but after widespread protests it was re-legalised and has grown bigger and bigger ever since. In 2016 20,000 people took part and 150,000 kg of tomatoes were thrown.
Bonus fact:
Another contender for the biggest food fight is The Battle of the Oranges in Italy, which honours an historic event when a defiant young women who stood up to a tyrant rapist and includes actors who act out the parts and teams representing the various parties involved. Every year 500 tonnes of oranges are thrown, (the equivalent of 3 blue whales).
