Tomatina at Glastonbury

pjadnoo · July 3, 2014

Did anyone go to mini Tomatina they held in The Common? In case you don't know, it's based on a massive tomato food fight festival held in a small town in Spain each year ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tomatina ). It didn't seem to be advertised much, except for a few posters in The Common, and was on an afternoon in Saturday/Sunday.

I've always wanted to go to the real one, but not had the chance, but was worried that;

a) This would be 'just' a small/watered down version of the real thing, and a bit of an anti-climax, and

Being covered in, and smelling of, tomato until I got home for a proper shower just didn't seem appealing at all.

Did anyone go? How was it? Any pics?

Hyphenated · July 3, 2014

I saw it advertised in the official programme and convinced my husband and a friend to go. It was the highlight of the festival for me!

The Guardian published a photo here, and Bearded Kitten (the event organisers) posted a 10 second video clip on Facebook, which was taken towards the end (I think).

Happy to share more details if anyone is interested!

pjadnoo · July 3, 2014

I saw it advertised in the official programme and convinced my husband and a friend to go. It was the highlight of the festival for me!

The Guardian published a photo here, and Bearded Kitten (the event organisers) posted a 10 second video clip on Facebook, which was taken towards the end (I think).

Happy to share more details if anyone is interested!

Hyphenated · July 3, 2014

Oh, must have missed seeing it in the programme, but it looks cool, thanks for the links (unfortunately can't see the vid right now, due to poor internet, but the picture looks great fun). Was it in the Temple bar itself then, or did it also spill out into the grounds? How was it, were there a lot of people? How long did it go on for? How did it start, was it with the ham on the pole? If you've been to the one in Spain, how did they compare?

Sorry for all the questions by the way, it was one of the big should we/shouldn't we choices for the weekend - maybe next year.

pjadnoo · July 3, 2014

There were some people watching from the Common, but everything took place inside the Temple. To be honest, I'm not sure how many people were there...the tiers were full and the inner circle a bit less so, but everyone still had space to move around. I think it was all for the best, as you had to be able to bend down to grab the tomatoes.

Before starting, they got everyone pumped up with songs like YMCA, Jump Around, etc. and then explained the rules (basically, "squish the tomatoes before you throw them.") When they were ready to start, the staff did a very brief countdown and then dumped massive bin bags full of tomatoes down the stairs. It was total, tomato-y chaos from that point on.

I think it lasted about 20 minutes in total, mostly because that's how long it took to exhaust the supply of tomatoes. I'm sure people would have been glad to keep fighting if they'd replenished the supply.

I should add that they were giving out ponchos, but we just wore our waterproofs. In hindsight, I should have taken one as my jacket still smells of tomatoes, despite having soaked and washed it. It also got very messy towards the end as everyone was chucking around muddy tomato pulp. IMO, it was a small price to pay for an awesome experience!

I haven't been to the tomatina in Spain (yet!) but I'd also love to hear from anyone who has done both.