{"id":1466,"date":"2018-08-29T14:30:26","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T12:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.spanishcourseinspain.com\/?p=1466\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T14:11:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T12:11:06","slug":"festivals-in-spain-la-tomatina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.spanishcourseinspain.com\/en\/festivals-in-spain-la-tomatina\/","title":{"rendered":"Festivals in Spain: La Tomatina"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 22,000 people stained red in a battle full of fun and\u2026 tomatoes. If you don\u00b4t know what we\u00b4re talking about then it\u00b4s likely that you\u2019ve never come across La Tomatina, one of the festivals in Spain with the biggest impact around the world. In this post we\u00b4re going to explain exactly what happens during this fabulous festival, which takes place very close to Valencia.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each year, on the last Wednesday of August, the small town of Bu\u00f1ol, just half an hour from Valencia, teems with people and prepares for the great tomato fight. Thousands of tourists wait (impatiently) for the arrival of 7 vans full of tomatoes (equal to 160,000kg), the shops pull their shutters down, the locals close their windows facing the street, and when the signal sounds\u2026 the chaos begins! People start throwing tomatoes everywhere and anywhere.<\/p>\n

The rules are simple: get a tomato, crush it, and throw it at anyone. It is recommended to wear comfortable clothes and shoes, that you don\u00b4t mind ruining, and of course goggles to protect your eyes. The fight lasts only an hour and is great fun. Rivers of tomato run through the streets, people get soaked and everything is stained red. When the hour is up, another signal sounds that ends the battle of La Tomatina. Afterwards, fire engines come to clean the streets and life goes back to normal until next August.<\/p>\n