On the last Wednesday in August, the streets of Buñol, Spain run red with… tomato juice. It’s the world’s biggest annual food fight, and it involves over 100 tons of squashed tomatoes being thrown by 30,000 very messy participants.

It’s 10 a.m. Anxious shopkeepers frantically cover their storefronts, fire trucks are at the ready with hoses to wash away the slippery tomato residue which will soon cover everything in sight, and the immense crowd dances and cheers in anticipation.

They are waiting for the “palo jabón”—the greasy pole. Unlike most events, La Tomatina does not start with a pistol shot. A long pole is erected in the town and a ham is placed on the very top. Members of the crowd then race to climb the pole, scrambling over each other, desperate to be the first one to the top. When the ham is knocked to the ground, the tomato throwing can begin.

Trucks empty the mass of overripe vegetables into the town square, and the frantic food fight explodes into action. In no time at all, the streets are flooded with the soft, wet guts of thousands upon thousands of hurled tomatoes.

After about an hour, exhausted, soaked from head to toe, and glowing bright red, the crowd slowly begins to disperse. The battered food fighters make their way down to the river to wash the seeds out of their hair and the slime from their faces.

No one knows quite when or why La Tomatina began. It’s usually dated to the mid-1940s, and there are many theories about what started off the first tomato fight. Some say it was just a playful fight between friends, while others claim it began as an attack on city council members. Some even say it began after a lorry accidentally spilled its produce on the street, and people just couldn’t contain themselves.

The festival has become so popular that other nations have even tried to hold identical events.

Some governments, however, are a little stricter than the fun-loving Spanish. The Indian version of the event in Bangalore was banned after tomato growers complained that throwing such a large amount of produce would be an unacceptable waste of food.

八月的最後一個星期三，西班牙布尼奧爾的街道上滿是紅色的番茄汁。這是世界上規模最大的年度食物大戰， 三萬名髒兮兮的參賽者丟擲超過一百噸壓扁的番茄。

早上十點，焦慮的店家瘋狂地遮蓋好店面，消防車帶著水管在一旁預備，等著要沖刷眼前不久就會覆蓋一切的溼滑番茄渣，大批群眾歡欣地手舞足蹈、引頸企盼。

他們在等待「搶火腿」活動──一隻油膩的竹竿。不像大多數的活動，西班牙番茄節不是鳴槍開始的。在市區裡，豎立著一根長竹竿，竿頂綁著一塊火腿，之後由群眾爬上竹竿搶火腿，大家爭先恐後要成為第一個爬到頂端的人，當火腿被擲到地上，投擲番茄的活動正式開始。

大卡車將採收過熟的蔬菜載往市區的廣場，於是，瘋狂的食物大戰爆發了。

要不了多久，整個街道就被成千上萬砸爛的番茄淹沒。

大約一小時之後，疲累不堪、全身溼成紅通通的民眾開始慢慢散去。食物大戰的戰士們，一臉憔悴，走向河邊掏洗頭髮裡的番茄籽，以及臉上的果泥。

沒有人確切知道西班牙番茄節起源於何時或是為何而舉辦。人們通常追溯至1940年代中期，也有許多關於第一場番茄大戰開始的理論。有些人認為番茄大戰起源於朋友之間的嬉鬧大戰，而有些人則宣稱是為了攻擊市議會成員，甚至還有人說，是因為有輛卡車不小心把農產品給撒在路上，民眾實在忍不住就玩了起來。

這個慶典實在太受歡迎，讓其他國家甚至想起而仿效。

但是比起愛好享樂的西班牙，有些國家的政府略顯嚴格。印度版的番茄大戰在邦加羅爾舉行，但在番茄農抗議後已被禁止，他們抱怨道，丟擲這麼大量的農產品，是令人難以接受的食物浪費。