La Tomatina 2010

Event and PP Tour Information

The crazy battle ot the Tomato is now over! Join PP in 2010 for one of the most Unbelievable and Memoriable Experiences of your life.

The Tomatina Festival (the Tomato Battle) takes place in Buñol, a small town of approximately 9,000 people, close to Valencia. The event is a one-day, in fact, one morning only happening, that occurs on the lasts Wednesday in August. It is short, sharp, crazy and awesome fun. Lorries filled with tomatos roll in the town square and soon after the festival and the carnage begins.

PP Travel operates 3 day tours based in fabulous hotels in the vibrant city of Valencia, the third largest city in Spain. Choose either our 3* option or our superior 4* packages. Based in our central hotels we include our welcome party, return coach transfer to Bunol for La Tomatina, breakfasts Souvenir T-Shirt. Most importantly, your experienced PP rep. which ensure you are totally prepared and in the best position to experience the awesome crazy fun that is the few wild hours of La Tomatina.

THIS YEAR'S TOUR HAS BROKEN ALL SALES RECORDS - HURRY FOR LAST FEW PLACES!!

The Tomato Fight:
On the Wednesday morning large dump trucks haul the massive bounty of tomatoes into the centre of Bunol, Plaza del Pueblo. The local farmers sit on top of the trucks and fire tomatoes (including green ones) at the defenceless crowd. The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing of the cannon and the chaos begins around 11.00am. From then on it is a battle that is generally every man for himself. It is not uncommon for it to develop into girls vs guys. Several times throughout the hour trucks come through to re-stock the street with more and more loads of tomatoes. Those who partake in this event are strongly encouraged to wear protective goggles and gloves. In addition, they must squish the tomatoes before throwing for safety precautions.

Lasting between an hour and two hours, the fighting ends and the cannon is fired once more. The cleaning process involves the use of fire trucks to spray down the streets, with water provided from a Roman aqueduct. The celebration concludes with the festival of the town's patron saints, San Luis Bertràn, and the Virgin Mary.

There are, in fact, very few rules at La Tomatina, but these are outlined by the city council:
- It is compulsory to squash the tomatoes before throwing them.
- This is a tomato lover's festival so strictly no other projectiles are allowed
- Be careful of the lorries going through the village
- You must not rip t-shirts
- Tomatoes must stop being thrown once the second incendiary device is fired.

After the tomato fight is over shopkeepers take down their tarpaulins and everyone chips in to hose down the town and each other and before long the town is transformed back to its former self.

Despite all the absolute carnage, each year this unbelievable fiesta and event occurs without major incident.

PP's series of 2009 tours sold out quickly and places are strictly limited this year so please contact us asap to secure your place at La Tomatina 2010.

Book Your Flight
The best site we believe to book your own flights is Opodo. It was created by the major European airlines and offers the cheapest options with them all.

Accommodation

We offer three fantastic hotels for the duration of our La Tomatina tour in Valencia. It is a large busy city and your choice of accommodation style and position is very important. Our three hotels are all very modern, comfortable, have excellent facilities and are very central.

Three Star Hotels
Choose from the brilliant and almost brand new Holiday Inn Express Valencia (Cuidad De Las Ciencia) 3* and the equally brilliant and stylish Express NH Las Artes Hotel 3*. Both are situated within a block of each other. Both have very modern facilities great breakfasts, swimmng pools, internet connection, super professional and friendly staff. They are also located very close to a large shopping mall with numerous retail outlets and restaurants.

Four Star Hotel
For the 4* option we stay in the very modern and vew Hotel Melia Valencia (formerly known as Hotel Urbem/Opera). It has superb facilities, including huge hot and cold buffet breakfasts, free wi-fi throughout the hotels. It is an ultra-modern building with an avant-garde interior design. It is spa, pool and gym area is amazing.

All three of our hotels are in a fantastic central Valencian position. They are located between the old town of Valencia and the America's Cup port village and beach area. They are walking distance from the new Arts and Sciences area and are very close to major shopping centres with loads of shops and restaurants. We have single, double, twin and triple rooms available.

Our Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Valencia on Google Maps
Our NH Las Artes Hotel on Google Maps
Our Melia Valencia Hotel on Google Maps

Frequently Asked Questions about La Tomatina

The PP La Tomatina Experience

Our passion for parties and fiestas goes back over 19 years when we first embarked on our great series of festival tours. We have always believed in a serious party at PP - that is a tour that has to be run professionally with fun, dedicated crew.

It is this experience we believe will make all the difference at La Tomatina. This is not a massive sprawling 16-day festival, like Munich's Oktoberfest or the 8 days of San Fermin celebrations at Pamplona. No, this fiesta is really all about 2 and half hours of total madness that has to be seen to be believed. You need to be totally prepared to get the most of out it - and that is where our PP crew come in. Our experienced team will be with you the whole way to ensure you are ready and get the most of this once in a lifetime fiesta - and we can't wait to serve you in Spain.

Naturally, to operate a tour of this kind, you have to be totally organised and professional. This is why each year thousands of passengers put their trust in PP at both the Oktoberfest and the Running of the Bulls - and at La Tomatina it will be no different. Our parties are renowned and to top it all off, we offer three fantastic very modern comfortable hotels - all situated in a superb position in Valencia.

History

La Tomatina is a festival held on the last Wednesday of August at Buñol, Valencia, Spain. Tens of thousands of participants come from all over the world to fight in a harmless food throwing battle where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.

Approximately 30,000 people come to the Tomatina tomato fight, and 240,000 pounds of tomatoes are used. In preparation for the dirty mess that will ensue, shopkeepers cover their storefronts in order to protect them from the carnage. At around 11:00am, the first event of the Tomatina Festival begins. A ham is placed upon a large greased pole, and the tomato fight can begin only when someone is able to climb to the top and bring it down. People struggle against each other, climbing atop one another, in order to be the one to pull down the ham. With this victory the tomato throwing begins.

Many trucks haul the bounty of tomatoes into the center of the town, Plaza del Pueblo. The tomatoes come from Extremadura, Spain, where they are less expensive. The signal for the beginning of the fight is firing of the cannon, and the chaos begins. Once it begins, the battle is generally every man for himself, but it is not uncommon for it to develop into girls vs guys. Those who partake in this event are strongly encouraged to wear protective goggles and gloves. In addition, they must squish the tomatoes before throwing for safety precautions. Another rule is that no one is allowed to bring into this fight anything that may provoke someone into a more serious brawl, for instance a bottle. While the natives enjoy tearing the ragged clothing off other people, it is highly frowned upon to tear someone else's clothing.

Somewhere between an hour and two hours, the fighting ends and the cannon is fired once more to signal the end. At this point no more tomatoes can be thrown. The cleaning process involves the use of fire trucks to spray down the streets, with water provided from a Roman aqueduct. People find water to wash themselves, most likely at the Buñol River. The celebration concludes with the festival of the town's patron saints, San Luis Bertràn, and the Virgin Mary.

The tomato fight of La Tomatina is not that old, compared to many Spanish festivals. It dates back to 1944 and has been held each year since simply for fun and pleasure - there is no known political or religious significance. No one is certain how this event originated and became a large holiday, but the one thing that is certain is that it began with someone throwing a tomato at another person!. With passerbys caught in the crossfire, the fight erupted into a grand battle since then. Possible theories on how the Tomatina began include a local food fight among friends, an anti-Franco protest, a juvenile class war, a volley of tomatoes from bystanders at a carnival parade, or as a practical joke on a bad musician. One of the most popular theories is that disgruntled townspeople attacked city councilmen with tomatoes during a town celebration. Another is that one of the participants in the town celebration fell down and when he stood up he started beating everyone around so everybody got caught up in a fight. There was a vegetable stall nearby with open crates showing the goods for sale. A riot broke out and a tradition was born ...

On the same Wednesday of August the following year, Bunol's crazy youths met at the square, but this time with their own tomatoes. In fact, in the following years the authorities forbade the celebration of what was already popularly known as the "day of the tomatina". During the 1950s it was allowed some years and banned others. However the popularity and tradition of the event kept growing and has been officially part of the Bunol calender since 1959.

From 1975 the festival was organised by "Los Clavarios de San Luis Bertrán" (San Luis Bertrán is the patron of the town of Buñol ) who provided the tomatoes, which until then were brought by the locals from their homes. Since 1980 the Town Hall has promoted the festival and every year the quantity of tons of tomatoes has rise as well as the number of participants from all over the world. It is now a established a truly international event, a very much must do on the European festival circuit.

And whatever the reason for the first tomato battle of La Tomatina, it is widely agreed that it is without doubt, the messiest of all Europe's festivals!

La Tomatina by Numbers

1952 - The year of the first 'official' tomato battle of La Tomatina.
9000 - Inhabitants in the town of BUNOL.
30,000 - Approximate number of tourists to La Tomatina each year.
38 - Kilometres BUNOL is outside of Valencia.
240,000 - Pounds of Tomatoes thrown at La Tomatina.
285 - PP Travel passengers at the 2008 La Tomatina festival.
4 - Kilograms of grease used on the Ham Pole.
3.5 - Tonnes of wet clothing thrown away after the Tomatina tomato fight each year.
180,000 - Litres of water used to wash the streets of Bunol clean.

La Tomatina Photos

La Tomatina 2009 26/08/2009

La Tomatina 2008 27/08/2008

La Tomatina 2006 30/08/2006