By Jessica Best
La Tomatina: Thousands descend on Spanish town to hurl tomatoes at each other in world's biggest food fight
28 Aug 2013 14:50
20,000 people gathered in the town of Buñol for the hour-long La Tomatina festival
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These revellers have been painting the town red - by throwing 130 tonnes of tomatoes at each another at one of the biggest food fights in the world.
The annual La Tomatina battle in the town of Buñol attracted around 20,000 people, with festival goers packing the streets to hurl tomatoes at one another for exactly one hour between 10am and 11am.
Around 150,000 tomatoes are chucked around during the festival, which is thought to have begun in 1945 when a group of young men protested in the main square during the parade of gigantes y cabezudos.
The boy are said to have grabbed tomatoes from a nearby vegetable stand and used the fruit as weapons, forcing the police to intervene and break up the fight.
68 years on, and the rules are simple: make sure you squash your tomatoes before you throw them, give way to lorries, don't rip T-shirts, and stop when you're told to.
But this year's festival was slightly different from those that have gone before - organisers charged visitors an entry fee for the first time.
5,000 free tickets were set aside for residents, but participants from outside the town were charged 10 Euro (£8.50) to cover the costs of the event.
Spain has seen its public debt spiral as the Eurozone crisis has escalated. Buñol is a town of around 10,000 people with a debt of around five million Euros.
