On Wednesday, other people from around the world took part in a big food battle, throwing overripe tomatoes at each other, the celebrated Spanish “La Tomatina. “
The festival takes place in the village of Buñol, located on the outskirts of Valencia. Truck workers unload 130 tons of overripe tomatoes onto the main street for participants to use as projectiles, leaving the doloing flooded with red pulp.
La Tomatina is celebrated each and every year on the last Wednesday of August, according to the tourist sites of the event. However, she was paralyzed for two years by the COVID-19 pandemic and despite everything she made her triumphant march. back this year.
Partygoers enjoy the surroundings of tomato pulp as they participate in the annual Tomatina Festival on August 31, 2022 in Buñol, Spain. The world’s largest gastronomic wrestling festival, La Tomatina, tries to throw overripe and low-quality tomatoes at others. (Photo by Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images)
Some 20,000 more people were expected to attend the festival, which costs 12 euros (also about 12 US dollars) to enter.
The event was animated through a food war in 1945 between local youth located in a tomato-producing region, according to the Associated Press. Media attention in the 1980s made it a domestic and foreign event, attracting participants from all corners of the world.
In addition to returning after COVID-19, this year’s birthday party is also the event’s 75th anniversary and 20 years since Spain declared the festival a foreign tourist attraction, the AP reported.
People covered in tomato pulp participate in the 75th “Tomatina” festival in the eastern city of Buñol, Spain, on August 31, 2022. (Photo by Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency Getty Images)
Participants are encouraged to wear protection or swimming goggles to protect their eyes from the battle, which lasts about an hour, according to the LaTomatina. org tourist site.
“The signal from the beginning of the combat is the fire of the cannons and the chaos begins,” says LaTomatina. org about the combat of the food. “Once it has begun, the war is each on its own. “
People covered in tomato pulp participate in the 75th “Tomatina” festival in the eastern city of Buñol, Spain, on August 31, 2022. (Photo by Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency Getty Images)
After the midday battle, groups of water the streets of the village and the revelers cover themselves with tomatoes.
Images and videos of the annual event have caused a stir on social media, from others who say the event is a huge food waste.
In Nigeria, where tomatoes are a staple food, the population is critical in 2016. That year a state of emergency was declared in the tomato-producing state of Kaduna and farmers reportedly lost up to 80% of their tomato crop, according to Vice News. and the BBC. After the La Tomatina event in Spain in 2016, many Nigerians criticized the great food war online and in local newspapers.
But the citizens of the Valencian Community said that the tomatoes used in La Tomatina are no longer for eating.
Rafa Perez Gil, who served as mayor of Buñol, told the BBC in 2016 that most of the tomatoes used in the August food war had passed their expiration date and were about to rot. However, Gil claimed that food is a factor that required a broader discussion.
“If you take a look at the garbage cans in Spain, every day more waste is thrown away than tomatoes that are used in the Tomatina,” the mayor told the media.
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This story reported from Cincinnati.
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