La Tomatina
Country: Spain
When: 31st August 2016
30th August 2017
The activities that take place in the Valencian town of Bunol make for one of the more unusual festivals in Europe, but one that is highly popular with working holidaymakers.
Imagine 140,000 tomatoes being thrown with the sole aim of soaking everyone. This Festival dates back to 1945 when a local gang of youths started throwing tomatoes at another gang. Over time, throwing tomatoes caught on and things have advanced quite significantly from those rather humble beginnings. Early on, there was more of laissez faire approach to organising the event and it was often shutdown by local authorities. In fact, the town’s residents did not officially adopt La Tomatina until 1980 when it was tied into other, local festivities.
The town now organises the event and has introduced a quota on the number of participants in the ‘throwing part’ of the Festival – which is now limited to 20,000 people. The entire festivities however attract close to 40,000 people who come to watch, eat, drink, listen to music and soak up the wide variety of entertainment on offer.
The entry cost into La Tomatina is 10 EURO. You can book your ticket online. Availability is quite good with 15,000 tickets allocated for foreigners and 5,000 for locals.
Festival Videos
Key highlights
- The Opening Ceremony starts at 10am with ‘climb the greasy pole’. People attempt to climb an extensively greased up pole that has a leg of ham at the top. The first person to reach and retrieve the ham signals the start of the tomato throwing.
- Trucks with tons of tomatoes dispense tomatoes at the people’s feet.
- Evening fireworks display.
- Day and night concert and music festivities.
- The clean-up! Fire trucks hose the town centre completely. It is amazing how quickly the place tidy’s up.
WorkingHolidaymaker.com TIP!
Make sure you take goggles to wear during the fight. It will certainly help you keep a clear vision during the battle.
Where is it
Bunol, Spain, about is 25km from Valencia.
How to get there
The best option is to fly or train directly into Valencia. As Spain’s third largest city, there are links all over the country. Training or busing from Valencia to Bunol is easy and cheap. Trains and buses regularly leave Valencia with the first trains leaving at 6:30am each day.
Spain has an excellent, fast and reliable rail network. Valencia is approximately 3 hours from Madrid and travel cost is £45. The trip from Barcelona takes just over 3 hours and costs £50.
Where to stay
Hostel or hotels in Valencia are your best bet for reasonably priced accommodation. The cost will vary between approx $12 AUS for hostels during the peak time through to $60 AUS for private rooms.
In Spain, pensions (essentially a shared room in a house) are popular choices for accommodation. You would typically be renting out a room with the landlord often living in the house as well. Food or breakfast is not included in the rental. The cost for a pension is generally a little cheaper than a private room in a hostel.
WorkingHolidayMaker.com TIP!
Book your accommodation in Alborache, which is a town close by to Bunol. Being only a short distance away it is a sneaky location from which to set-up base for the Festival
Useful Information
More information on La Tomatina festival:
www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/ciudades-pueblos/otros-destinos/bunol.html
http://www.valencia-cityguide.com/tourist-information/leisure/festivals/tomatina-de-bunol.html