La Tomatina 2026: Thousands Turn Spanish Town Red in Annual Tomato Fight
Thousands of revellers gathered in Buñol, Spain, on Wednesday for the annual La Tomatina festival, pelting each other with overripe tomatoes. More than 20,000 people attended this year's event.
The Spanish town of Buñol hosted its traditional La Tomatina festival on Wednesday, as crowds spent just over an hour hurling up to 165 tonnes of overripe tomatoes at one another.
Trucks loaded with tomatoes moved slowly through the packed streets while people riding in the cargo beds threw tomatoes down at the crowd, who threw them right back. Within minutes, white shirts had turned pink, as residents watching from balconies doused participants with water. Buildings along the festival route had been covered with tarpaulins ahead of time to protect them from the mess.
More than 20,000 people were expected to take part this year. According to Spanish news agency EFE, roughly 40% of participants over the past three years have travelled from outside Spain, with a notable increase in visitors from India since the 2011 Bollywood film "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" featured a recreation of the festival.
La Tomatina is held every year on the last Wednesday of August and traces its origins back to a street brawl in 1945. The festival has just one rule: tomatoes must be squashed before being thrown.
