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La Tomatina festival: The messiest holiday in the world

The world-famous Tomatina festival has been held in the Valencian town of Buñol on the last Wednesday of August since 1945. Every year, thousands of tourists join the town’s 9,000 inhabitants to throw tonnes of tomatoes at one another. The event, often regarded as the world’s largest food fight, is the culmination of a week-long celebration made up of street parties, fireworks, food fairs and a paella cooking contest.

The tradition began in the mid-1940s, though its origins are unclear. It has been attributed to a food fight that broke out in the town in 1945 during the “parade of giants and big heads” and had to be broken up by the police. The fight was banned in the early 1950s until 1957, when the locals held a funeral for a giant tomato in protest and successfully had the ban removed.

Over 100 tonnes of tomatoes are brought to the town and thrown during an hour-long battle, at an estimated total cost of €140,000, or €2,300 a minute. In recent years, the festival has become so popular that the council decided to limit the attendance to the event to a maximum of 20,000 people.

The fight begins at 11am with the firing of a water cannon. According to the rules, participants must stop throwing tomatoes as soon as they hear the second round of the cannon. Then, it’s time to clean up. Actually, once the tomato pulp is sprayed down by fire trucks, the ground is clean due to the acidity of the tomato.

The tomato festival has become a global phenomenon, with similar festivals staged at one time or another in Colombia, China, the US and Chile.

SOLUCIONES

I * READING COMPREHENSION

CHOOSE AND WRITE THE CORRECT OPTION (A, B, C or D). (0.5 points each)

1. As a consequence of the huge popularity of the festival, the council…

(a) has restricted attendance. X
(b) has extended the duration of the event.
(c) has forbidden the attendance of foreign people.
(d) banned the celebration for a period of time.

2. In the late 50s, the locals …

(a) were able to get the festival back after a fight against the police.
(b) made the government hold a funeral for a giant tomato
(c) used their sense of humour to get the festival back. X
(d) took part in a giant heads’ parade to protest because the battle had been banned

ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE PRECISE WORDS OR PHRASES FROM THE TEXT

3. No one seems to know exactly how it all started.