BUÑOL, Spain — Thousands of revelers -- including many lured by a Bollywood film -- descended on a small Spanish town on Wednesday for the annual La Tomatina food fight, where they painted Bunol red with tons of overripe tomatoes. Loaded trucks plodded through the crowd with people in their cargo beds throwing tomatoes at the revelers -- who, in turn, hurled them at one another. Their white shirts soon turned pink and red while pop songs blasted from speakers. At one point, police appeared to use pepper spray to disperse an area of the crowd, but a festive vibe quickly resumed. The messy melee took place for over an hour in the town, where buildings were covered with tarps ahead of the festivities. Held on the last Wednesday of August, the festival traces its origins to a food fight in 1945. La Tomatina became an annual tradition before Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco banned it in the 1950s. Televised media attention in the 1980s helped turn the festival into a national event, and eventually, an international attraction. More than 20,000 people had been expected to take part this year, with the Spanish news agency EFE reporting this week that roughly 40 per cent of participants over the past three years have been tourists from outside Spain. There has been a notable jump in visitors from India in recent years, following the 2011 Bollywood movie “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” (“You Only Live Once”), in which three friends take a road-trip through Spain during an extended bachelor party. The film recreated La Tomatina, introducing the festival to many Indians. The movie is what first drew Romail Khokhar, a 27-year-old from Mumbai, to Bunol. He was there on Wednesday morning, eager to participate in the food fight for his third time. Mazhar and Sanya Khan, both 40, were likewise inspired by the film. “It was fantastic, absolutely well-managed,” said Mazhar Khan. “We are from India, and this is our first time being in La Tomatina. It has been a dream for over a decade.” The movie’s appeal isn’t limited to Indians. It also drew Joanna Wytrzyszczewska from Poland. “Way more crazy than we expected,” said Wytrzyszczewska, 32. “We came because we were inspired by a movie. It was better than the movie.” Similar tomato-flinging events have taken place in Florida, London, Amsterdam, the Colombian town of Sutamarchan and Hyderabad, India. Non-local attendees pay 15 euros (US$17.50) for a ticket. The first and only rule: Squash your tomatoes before hurling them to avoid injuries. Still, many participants don swimming goggles and earplugs for protection. Once the hour was up, the sound of a cannon blast marked the end of festivities and crowds washed off at communal showers nearby. The town’s streets were later hosed down. Though stains on clothes can be permanent, the tomatoes’ citric acid acts as a cleaning agent, often leaving Bunol’s streets cleaner than before. Alicia León And Suman Naishadham, The Associated Press
