Streets run red in festival
2003-08-28 11:17
Madrid - Tens of thousands of people got pasted in eastern Spain in one of the country's most popular summer festivals - the annual tomato-throwing festival.
They pelted each other with overripe tomatoes, turning the streets of the eastern Spanish town of Bunol into red, juicy pools in an annual festival known as "La Tomatina".
It is said to be the world's largest tomato battle. Last year, the crowd numbered about 38 000 - more than four times the population of Bunol, a town close to the coast.
Within minutes, the streets, the revellers and nearby buildings were splashed with red.
National radio reported that residents protected their facades with plastic sheets. Others dumped buckets of water on to the crowds from balconies overlooking the fight, said RNE.
The Bunol tomato fight has become one of Spain's most-popular summer festivals, often drawing people from as far as Japan and Australia.
The festival, held on the last Wednesday of every August, started in the 1940s when children started throwing their lunch at each other one day in a downtown square, at a time when the region's tomato exports were starting to pick up.
They met again the following year, this time pelting passers-by as well and giving birth to the tradition.
- AP