La Tomatina 2026: Bollywood's pull brings record Indian turnout to Spain's tomato fight
Over 20,000 people joined Spain's La Tomatina festival in Buñol, with a notable surge in Indian tourists inspired by the Bollywood film 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'.
The small Spanish town of Buñol was painted red on Wednesday as thousands of revellers took part in the annual La Tomatina festival, a one-hour food fight that used up to 165 tons of overripe tomatoes.
Trucks loaded with tomatoes moved slowly through the crowds, with participants in the cargo beds hurling the fruit at those on the ground, who in turn threw them at each other. White shirts quickly turned shades of pink and red as pop music played from speakers. At one point, police used pepper spray to disperse part of the crowd, but the festive atmosphere soon returned.
The festival, held on the last Wednesday of August, traces its origins to a spontaneous food fight in 1945. It became an annual tradition before being banned by dictator Francisco Franco in the 1950s. Televised coverage in the 1980s helped turn it into a national and then international event.
This year, more than 20,000 people were expected to participate. The Spanish news agency EFE reported that roughly 40% of participants over the past three years have been tourists from outside Spain. There has been a notable rise in visitors from India, following the 2011 Bollywood movie "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara" ("You Only Live Once"), which featured a recreation of La Tomatina.
Among the Indian visitors were Mazhar and Sanya Khan, a 40-year-old couple, who said the festival had been a dream for over a decade after seeing it in the film. Gurpreet Singh, a 31-year-old office worker, said he had been planning the trip for four years. "It was amazing, it was a lot of tomatoes," he said.
Other attendees came from the UK and Poland. Luke Williams, a 33-year-old programmer from the UK, described the event as "absolute chaos," adding that without his glasses he could only see red tomatoes everywhere. Joanna Wytrzyszczewska from Poland said it was "way more crazy than we expected" and better than the movie that inspired her visit.
Similar tomato-throwing events have been held in Florida, London, Amsterdam, the Colombian town of Sutamarchán, and Hyderabad, India. Non-local attendees pay 15 euros ($17.50) for a ticket. The only rule is to squash tomatoes before throwing them to avoid injuries, though many participants wear swimming goggles and earplugs for protection.
The festival ends with a cannon blast, after which crowds wash off at communal showers and the town's streets are hosed down. The citric acid in the tomatoes often leaves the streets cleaner than before.