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August 2003
Valencia Province - Bunol (La Tomatina)
David Aaronson2005-09-28 20:57:41
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La Tomatina is the highlight of the annual festival in the small town of Bunol which is about 25 miles (40 km) west of Valencia. This is a relatively recent festival, maybe only 50 years old but the origins are already somewhat obscure so we won't go there. The purpose is basically to have a big tomato fight with 20 or 30 thousand of your closest friends. We had a hard time finding detailed info on the web before we went but Bunol is a pretty sleepy town normally that gears up for their big day. Don't try to drive through town, just park on the outskirts where large fields have been devoted to that end and then walk in. We arrived around 9:30 AM and by 10:00 we were standing in the main square.
The first event involves a ham on a pole. Yes, you read that correctly. It also involves an awful lot of lard on the pole below the ham. In this picture, on the right side of the Channel 2 banner is a tall thin pole (1). You can see a hapless person clinging to it. Way up at the top is a oblong purple-white object which is the ham. When the ham falls, the festival starts (approximately). For enough people to pile on the pole and allow some nimble person (usually a child) to cut the ham down, all the lard has to come off first. Most of the lard comes off on the bodies of people who are unsuccessful for the first hour or two of this display. The ham came down around 11:30 AM.
Once the ham is down, the fire hoses come out and the whole street/square/mob of people are hosed down (2). This is a good thing because it's really quite hot out there and the water is quite cold. Notice the protective plastic sheeting placed over all the buildings to minimize tomato damage. Around this time the crowd gets a bit surly and t-shirts come off (of men) get balled up and thrown. This is actually sort of dangerous because a wet t-shirt can cause some damage, so this is a fine time to practice being short.
At noon, a
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See photographs from:
Spain Gallery
