Spain’s La Tomatina street tomato fight is back after a pandemic hiatus (and messy)

Revelers pelt each other with overripe tomatoes during La Tomatina in Buñol, Spain, near Valencia, in what’s billed as the world’s largest food-fight festival. It returned after a two-year suspension because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Alberto Saiz / AP)

BUÑOL, Spain — People from around the world pelted each other with tomatoes as Spain’s famed La Tomatina street tomato fight returned after a two-year suspension because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Workers on trucks unloaded 130 tons of overripe tomatoes along the main street of the town of Buñol in eastern Spain, near Valencia, on Wednesday for participants to throw at each other.

An estimated 12,000 people took part, paying the equivalent of about $12 a ticket for the privilege.

The town’s streets were hosed down and the revelers showered off within minutes after the end of the hour-long extravaganza, which is billed as the world’s largest food-fight festival.

Said to have been inspired by a food fight among children in 1945 in the town, which is in a tomato-producing region, it’s usually held every August on the last Wednesday of the month,

If you want to pelt other people with overripe tomatoes, you have to expect the same in return, right? (Manuel Queimadelos Alonso / Getty Images)

It became a big tourist draw in the 1980s, but there were fewer foreign visitors this year, mainly because of continuing fears over COVID-19 in Asian countries.

Many of the participants don swimming goggles to protect their eyes while their clothes, typically T-shirts and shorts, are left covered in pulp.