La Tomatina

The last Wednesday in August was La Tomatina, one of Spain's messiest festivals. It's held in the town of Bunol, 40km west of Valencia, and attracts a crowd of close to 30,000 people to a town of just 9,000.
The locals covered their balconies with plastic, stores were boarded up, and the streets swelled with tourists in all manner of dress.
Just before noon 5 truckloads of ripe tomatoes were dumped into the crowd and for the next hour everyone joined in a frenzied tomato battle. The air was ripe with the smell of tomatoes and we were up to our ankles in tomato mush by the end of it.
At 1pm a rocket signaled the end of the battle and we headed down to the river to wash off the tomatoes and don fresh clothing.
It was absolutley incredible!! Words don't even come close to desribing the feeling that was in the streets. Crazy!