One of Europe's strangest festivals sees a huge tomato fight in a sleepy Spanish village . . . 
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Every year in August the little town of Bunol near Valencia in Spain plays host to one of the world's most colourful food fights; an event that sees the town's usual population of around 9000 people grow suddenly to 40000. Whilst Tomatina has been celebrated annually for most of the last 50 years, its true origins are the subject of several different theories. Today, the mayhem of the main event is relatively short-lived, and marks the close of a week long festival that includes live music, fireworks and cookery competitions. On the final Wednesday morning before the tomato battle commences, local business board up their windows in anticipation of the chaos to come. 120000 tonnes of the red fruit is grown especially for this extravagant event and are supplied free of charge to the participants by the local authorities. Given the ever growing size of the event, the cleanup is over surprisingly quickly - the spattered revellers can use public showers set up on the riverside, the sun-warmed gazpacho is hosed off the main square and surrounding streets within hours... Bunol returns to normality until next year.
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