La Tomatina is a great once in a lifetime experience…. But never again.

The world famous Spanish tomato throwing festival in the town of Bunol held in August every year is a once in a life time experience. It had always been on my bucket-list, a bit like Carnival in Brazil or Oktoberfest in Germany, but unlike Oktoberfest, that I’m super keen to go to for a third time, La Tomatina is a one time only festival for me.

La Tomatina started in 1945 and has occasionally been banned at times through the years since then, but with 20,000 people attending each year, it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon!

Raved to, from a friend who had gone the year before, I booked my trip not really knowing what to expect. Her advice to me, was take goggles, and buy some clothes and shoes from Primark (a very cheap clothing store throughout Europe) to throw out after.

I didn’t think she was actually serious, until she told me about people getting pink eye if they didn’t wear goggles…so off I went to buy some $4 shoes and goggles… didn’t worry about the clothes though, figured I could just wash them… well, yes… technically…

There are many tour companies who organise tours to La Tomatina and I went with the Fanatics festival tours, where they based you in a hotel in Valencia roughly a hour from the town of Bunol and take you to the festival. Most tours give you a festival t-shirt which is great when your completely lost in the mosh pit and trying to find your way out- you can normally manage to find someone with the same t-shirt to follow!

So off we went, following everyone down into the town as all the coaches cant enter the town and are parked at the top of the hill. By the time we got into the street where it is held, the mosh pit was well and truly on its way.

For entertainment while we waited we got to watch people failing, trying the Palo jabón, which is where there is a chunk of ham at the top of a greased pole that people try to climb to get the ham. Once someone has managed; the tomato throwing is commenced, with trucks coming through the crowd with people throwing the the tomatoes into the crowd.

To be honest before this moment, I had never really thought too much about how much having a tomato hurdled at your head would hurt. You know, tomatoes are fairly soft and squishy, its not like its a orange being thrown at you after all….

so after about a minute, struggling to stay standing up in the mosh pit, where being on the shorter side only my head was exposed to tomatoes and elbows, I was already trying to decide what was better to hit you, a reasonably fresh tomato that could knock me out or a softer, but rotten tomato that stank so much that the smell made you want to throw up. 

So after a hour of throwing, the locals kindly start to hose you down, helping create tomato soup on the road, overflowing the gutters with people rolling around in them and sprinkled with a few extra ingredients such as vomit and urine thrown in. Yep, 20,000 people, limited toilets and hours worth of alcoholic consumption, while standing in the hot sun, its not pretty!

And with that we started with what seemed like a very long walk back up to the coach parking, baking or shall I say fermenting in the sun, the smell- a smell that is permanently burned into my memory- surrounding us. we had a long nauseating (because of the smell) trip back to Valenica where I have never in my life been so happy to see a shower, and even more happy that my roommate had never showed up so I didnt have to share- especially as I had to wash my hair six times as the smell wasn’t coming out and linger for a few days after!

I was also then able to soak my clothes in the bath for 2 days after as I hadn’t taken my friends advice about the clothes seriously, but also wanted to keep my tour top as a souvenir which went back to the UK in a plastic bag to keep the smell from my suitcase and other clothes, and then spent the next month continuously washing them until the smell finally faded.

Looking back, La Tomatina was a  great, crazy, smelly, fun, revolting, exciting  must do experience that I will never be doing again!

Tips if you want to experience La Tomatina

• Don’t bring any valuables with you as there are a lot of  pick-pockets around.

• Drink sparingly- there aren’t many public toilets around and once you are in the middle of that mosh pit, it is virtually impossible to get out to go to the toilet!

• Bring a waterproof case for your phone, if you decide to take your phone for photos as it will get drenched otherwise. There are plenty of vendors are also selling these on your way in, if like me you forget!

• Get some cheap shoes and clothes that you can easily throw out after. (There is a Primark located in Valencia if you need to do some last minute shopping!)

• If your concerned about the smell of rotten tomatoes in your hair, bring a swimming cap to wear- the smell definitely lingers for a while, no matter how much you wash it!

Steph xx