When is La Tomatina 2027
La Tomatina 2027 takes place on Wednesday, 25 August, the last Wednesday of the month, following the rule the town of Buñol has used to schedule the event for decades. It sits within a broader week of local festivities honoring the town’s patron saints, but the tomato fight itself is the single-day, one-hour main event that draws international attention.
History
The most commonly told origin story dates to 1945, when a food fight broke out among young people at a local festival, possibly starting from a scuffle near a vegetable stall in the town square. The informal tradition returned in the following years, was banned and revived multiple times through the late 1940s and 1950s amid disapproval from local authorities during the Franco era, and was eventually formally recognized and organized by the town in the 1950s. By the 1980s, it had grown into an internationally known event, and Buñol introduced ticketing in 2013 to manage crowd numbers after attendance had grown to a scale the small town’s infrastructure couldn’t safely absorb.
How it’s celebrated
At the signal — traditionally after a participant successfully climbs a greased pole to retrieve a ham at the top — trucks loaded with overripe tomatoes unload into the streets, and for exactly one hour, participants throw tomatoes at each other in the town’s central streets. Rules require tomatoes to be squashed before throwing to reduce injury risk, and participants are asked to stop immediately when a second signal sounds. Fire trucks hose down the streets and participants afterward, an operation almost as much a spectacle as the fight itself.
Around 120-150 tonnes of tomatoes are used in a typical year, specifically overripe fruit not intended for sale.
Food and customs
Somewhat obviously, tomatoes are the entire point, but the broader festival week around La Tomatina includes traditional Valencian food, local wine, and the standard elements of a Spanish town’s patron saint festival — processions, fireworks, and communal meals — that get comparatively little international attention next to the tomato fight itself.
Practical/visitor information
Tickets are required and capped at a limited number of participants (around 20,000 in recent years) specifically to keep the event manageable for the town, which has a permanent population of roughly 10,000. Tickets typically go on sale months in advance and sell out; buying through unofficial resellers carries real risk of invalid tickets.
Best places to experience it
- Calle del Cid and the surrounding town center — the core tomato-fight zone
- Buñol town square — where the pre-fight ham-pole event and opening ceremony take place
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to buy a ticket in advance? Yes — La Tomatina has been a ticketed, capped-attendance event since 2013, and tickets should be bought through official channels well ahead of the date.
Is it dangerous? Injuries are generally minor (bruising, slipping) given the rule that tomatoes must be squashed before throwing, but it’s a physically intense, extremely crowded event and not risk-free.
What should I wear? Clothes and shoes you’re prepared to throw away — tomato acid stains permanently, and the ground becomes a slippery tomato-pulp surface for the full hour.