Spain Is Home To The World's Largest Food Fight Featuring One Iconic Fruit

When considering a culinary journey, many travelers are drawn to Spain's rich food culture — the country even contains the Basque Country city of San Sebastián, one of Anthony Bourdain's favorite travel destinations. Yet booking a flight to Spain just for a food fight? That's a more unusual itinerary stop! Intriguingly, you could build your summer vacation around the annual La Tomatina festival, which was recognized by Guinness World Records in 2013 as the globe's biggest food fight.

For precisely one hour in late August, the normally sleepy town of Buñol, Spain (population just under 10,000), transforms into a frenzy of people — currently capped at 20,000 but once reaching 40,000 at its 2013 peak — tomatoes in hand. Trucks unload dozens and dozens of tons of the fruit, then attendees grab handfuls, break the skin, and throw in all directions. Don't expect teams or any sense of organization — the festival is best described as a rave meets fruity fireworks, with undertones of cathartic stress relief.

Everyone ends up fully covered in the fruit's red juice, and by the end, rivers of tomato sauce flow through the streets. Expectedly, the town gets stinky and slippery, so the local fire brigade performs cleanup duties soon afterward. Thankfully, all the tomatoes involved are low-quality fruit not fit for sale. So if you're looking to integrate more of the fruit into your holiday, take note that Spain's the place to go.

The fruity brawl isn't a standalone event — the hour is part of a week-long festival dedicated to the area's patron saints. Before tomatoes take center stage, parades fill the streets, and there's another food-themed competition involving a Spanish ham suspended atop a lofty pole. Traditionally, the tomato skirmish kicked off when someone snatched the cured meat, but nowadays, fireworks signal it's throw time.

Several of these cultural festivities predate the La Tomatina fight, which is believed to have first occurred in 1945. No one really knows the reason for the tomato bash, but most agree the fruit was first thrown amidst a genuine conflict, and then a multitude of townsfolk joined in. The following year, the local government intentionally canceled the parade to prevent another food fight, yet rebellious residents came prepared with crates of tomatoes and carried on anyway. Skirmishes continued until an even more serious federally mandated ban by Francisco Franco, which spurred a funerary procession dedicated to the fruit. Such playful protesting ultimately led to the festival's official recognition in the late 1950s, with the huge fight now a respected yearly tradition drawing participants from around the globe.