Comparing Festivals

La Tomatina tomato fight in Buñol near Valencia happens every year on the last Wednesday in August though the partying starts earlier in the week. The highlight of the festival is the tomato fight which takes place between 11am and 1pm on that day.

The event has become one of the highlights on Spain's summer festivals calendar with thousands of people flocking to this little Valencian town for this chaotic event.

The origins of La Tomatina aren't clear with several theories explaining how Bunyol has become home to the world's biggest tomato fight. However, the most plausible suggests that the most likely explanation dates back to 1945 when an annual parade of enormous figures with big heads (Gigantes y Cabezudos) was passing through the streets of Bunyol.

It seems that some youngsters tried to join in the parade and accidentally knocked over one of the giants who got to his feet and started swinging out at everyone around him. In retaliation the youngsters grabbed some tomatoes from a nearby vegetable stall and started throwing them at him until the police arrived to break things up.

The following year on the same last Wednesday of August these young people returned to the town hall square and started another tomato fight using their own tomatoes. Again the police intervened and in subsequent years the local council tried to ban the 'El día de la Tomatina' but with little success as event continued to grow year after year reaching the ludicrous size it is today.

The festival was launched in November 2005 and has enjoyed five successful years. Each year thousands of children, young people and their families enjoy a world-class film programme from all over the world. This year, we will present an exciting mix of films, animated features, workshops, events and hands-on film fun in 12 different locations throughout London.

The film programme in 2009 included premieres, film classics, animation masterpieces, and workshops ranging from the silent film play-a-long to the ‘Make a film in a day’, animation and dance!

In addition to all this, there are very exciting special events and lots of free fun activities for the entire family in the drop-in zone at the Barbican during the LCFF.