La Tomatina Draws 20,000 Revellers for 165-Tonne Tomato Fight in Spain

3 articles · Updated · Al Jazeera English · Aug 26

Up to 165 tonnes of overripe tomatoes were dumped into Buñol’s streets on Wednesday as thousands of festival-goers pelted each other for about an hour during La Tomatina.
More than 20,000 people were expected at the annual event, with many dressed in white T-shirts while trucks fed the melee to blasting pop music.
Police were deployed after authorities covered buildings with tarps, and officers at one point appeared to use pepper spray to disperse part of the crowd before the fight quickly resumed.
About 40% of participants in recent years have been international tourists, Spanish media said, including a growing number from India after the 2011 Bollywood film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.
La Tomatina began as a local food fight in 1945, survived a ban under Francisco Franco and later became a global spectacle after television popularized it.