The red of finally a total of 150,000 kilos of ripe pear variety tomatoes has once again colored the most central streets of the Valencian town of Buñol in the iconic Tomatina, its most traditional and international festival that once again has exceeded the expectations of its participants.
More than two hours before the start of this bloodless battle, where white t-shirts have been the most common item of clothing, the music was already being heard in the streets of the municipality, while people waited, walking and dancing, trying to grab a ham from above. of a soapy stick or gaining strength with generous lunches.
The party, whose images go around the world on television and social networks, began at noon, with the slow parade of six trucks loaded with 150 tons of tomatoes -30 more than the figure provided yesterday by the cooperative that supplies them- ripe and juicy, not suitable for consumption but ideal as ammunition in this pitched "battle", in which everyone fights everyone with a clean tomato.
The President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, has followed this celebration from the balcony of the City Hall with some 20,000 participants and in which a helicopter and more than 200 Civil Guard agents, in addition to other security forces, have been deployed to monitor and attend to any incidence derived from the agglomeration.
Mazón has assured that next year he will go in a swimsuit and will live it from the street, and has highlighted that "a hooliganism" -this is how it was conceived decades ago- has become this party "not for us, but for everyone". .
Next to him has been the mayor of Buñol, Virginia Sanz, who in the previous moments has invited the president to get on a tomato truck and has ended up stained "up to the knee", in addition to confirming that there have been 2,000 more participants than the last year, from eighteen different nationalities, and that it is a "safe and fun" party.
One more year there has been no shortage of diving goggles, the best protection for the eyes against tomato acid, among the thousands of attendees who occupied the streets; This year many citizens of India have been seen mobilized by a Bollywood film, although there were also those from the United States, Australia or Japan, among other nationalities.
In a purely summer environment, the water that came from balconies and terraces and from points on the street with hoses and buckets was well received by the participants, who did not stop searching for their "victims" while they crushed the round weapons before throwing them away. so that they would be softer and not hurt.
As tradition dictates, this town about 40 kilometers from Valencia has been transformed this last Wednesday in August into the tomato capital of the world with a celebration that, in 2002, was declared a Festival of International Tourist Interest, which has great worldwide repercussions and which It represents significant income in the province due to the tourism it attracts.
For an hour, the tomatoes have "flew" in this "war" that started almost by chance in 1945 at the hands of some bored young people and that has come to an end after sixty minutes, the sound of horns and a casing showing a postcard of pink t-shirts and streets lined with a thick soupy and sticky red carpet.
With the smell of tomato still in the air and while the crowd was disappearing, work began on cleaning the facades (some protected by tarpaulins) and streets, which in a few minutes already looked pristine and disinfected thanks to the acid from the fruits used as artillery in this original battle, which is already looking forward to a new edition in 2024.
