Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here there is a mother of all food fights, and it is Lamentina Tomato Fight. This is the largest food fight in the world and it takes place on the last Wednesday in August each year in the small town of Bugno, Spain, near Valencia. The fight has gotten so huge that as many as thirty thou participants descend upon bun Yol to hurl squished tomatoes
at each other. An entire week is dedicated to a festival with music, food, revelry, and yes, lots of tomatoes. On that Wednesday, you'll be hard pressed to get anywhere near the town center where truckloads of tomatoes are brought in for the big fight. But don't worry. From about noon to one pm, chances are you can be just about anywhere in town and still get in on the action. No one is exactly sure about the origins of Lamentina.
There are stories of a food fight that broke out between friends and escalated to a full town of fly ing tomatoes. Other origin stories include anyone from a bad musician to city councilman getting pegged with tomatoes. By angry towns people. One story was simply that a tomato truck turned over in the center of town and people decided
to have a little fun in the aftermath. The most commonly agreed upon origin has to do with a town parade full of townsfolk wearing giant headed costumes sometime around Legend has it, one of these human bubble heads fell over during the parade after some kids tried to join in and his costumed head was knocked off. He was so angry that he started fight with any and all takers. The local kids retaliated by raiding a nearby tomato stand
and assaulting him with the messy fruits. The following year, the same kids re enacted the event, and it followed as such year after year until it was a bona fide town event. The city council and local police were less than excited about it and attempted to stop it at various points over the years, but they eventually embraced it and the notoriety it brought to the small town of just nine thousand people. If you want to take part in the world's largest food fight, you better make
plans ahead of time. The sheer number of people who come to Bunyol for lactomatina each year versus the actual size of the town means that it's nearly impossible to find accommodations there. Your best bet is to reserve a room at a hotel or hostel in nearby Valencia. Trains leave for bugnon about once an hour. You should also heed the following unofficial rules. The start and end is
marked by firecracker. Respect the starting and ending times. You must crush each tomato before you throw it, and avoid hitting the tomato trucks. For the first thirty or so years of the food fight, it was strictly a b y O t affair. Since though, the ammunition has been trucked in by Las Colorvarios di San Louis Bertron. Loosely translated, this means the cavalry or army of San Louise Bertron,
the patron of the town of Bunyan. Roughly two hundred thousand pounds of tomatoes are brought in for the festival. That's about a hundred thousand kilos. The police are pretty forgiving during the fight, as long as nothing violent happens and the crowd seizes the fight immediately upon hearing that second firecracker. After that, the partying continues and the clean up begins. The tomatoes are hosed from the streets into
the sewer system. Locals and shop owners all chip in on the hosing duties, but the majority of the washing away comes in the form of fire truck hoses. So far, the town is reported no nefarious activity or injuries, and those traveling to Bunnol have been respectful of the tradition and its rules. If you plan on going to Spain to take part in lacal Matina, you should heed the following tips. Do not wear flip flops or any clothes you care about. Don't throw any kind of non tomato
object in the food fight, including your own shirt. Do bring a change of clothing, especially if you're traveling by train to and from Bunyan. Also bring along swimming or snow skiing goggles to avoid the sting of tomato juice in your eyes. Make sure your phone and any other devices like cameras are housed in watertight casings. And finally, know that there are no spectators at Lacol mcdena. If you're there, prepare to leave Red. Today's episode was written
by Charles W. Bryant and produced by Tyler Clang. If you haven't checked out Chuck's new show, Movie Crush, you can find it anywhere the podcasts are found. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more in this and lots of other structured, le messy topics, visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com and for more podcast from My heart Radio like Movie Crush, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.