La Tomatina festival returns after pandemic pause

(31 Aug 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS  
Buñol - 31 August 2022
1. Various of people in trucks hurling tomatoes at crowd in the street
2. People throwing tomatoes
3. People throwing tomatoes at crowd from trucks
4. Truck unloading tomatoes onto participants
5. Various of people cheering and throwing tomatoes
6. Revellers sitting on wall, throwing tomatoes
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Yamil Ehmed, Malaga resident:
"(Inaudible) Tomatina. It was super, amazing experience. Gracias (in Spanish)."
8. Various of La Tomatina fight
9. Various of people in trucks hurling tomatoes at crowds on the street
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Shubham Grorver, tourist from India:
"Amazing actually. It was quite wild, like I had never experienced such a thing before. Like I experienced the Holi (festival) in India, but it is much more wild than that. Like people are going crazy. It's Tomatina. I mean I loved it, thank you so much."
11. People cheering and waving
12. Various of people lying on the floor, playing in tomato pulp
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Oakley, skydiving instructor and tourist:
"Amazing, super crazy."
(Reporter: Why?)
"Because you're throwing tomatoes at people. Everyone's disgusting, its awesome."
14. People kicking tomato pulp over men
15. Man lying on ground in tomato pulp
16. Various of clean-up after La Tomatina
STORYLINE:
People from around the world pasted each other with tomatoes as Spain's famous "Tomatina" street tomato fight took place once again Wednesday in the eastern town of Buñol following a two-year suspension owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
People on trucks unloaded 130 tons of over-ripe tomatoes along the main street of the town for participants crammed below to throw, leaving the area drenched in red pulp.
Up to 20,000 people were to take part in the festival, paying 12 euros ($12) a ticket to take part.
The town's streets are hosed down and the revellers showered off within minutes of the hour-long noon battle ending.
The event, held on the last Wednesday of August, was inspired by a food fight between local children in 1945 in the town, located in a tomato-producing region.
Media attention in the 1980s turned it into a national and international event, drawing participants from every corner of the world.
Local officials said they expected fewer foreign visitors this year mainly because of continuing fears over COVID-19 in Asian countries.
Participants don swimming goggles to protect their eyes while their clothes, typically T-shirts and shorts, are left covered in pulp.
Besides being the first battle since before the pandemic started in 2020 in Spain, this year’s celebration had the added incentive of being the event’s 75th anniversary and 20 years since the festival was declared by Spain as an international tourism attraction.
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