La Tomatina takes place every year on the last Wednesday of August in the town of Buñol. It is the highlight of a week-long festival in honour of the town’s patron saint, San Luis Bertrán and the Virgin Mary. When the day of the great tomato battle dawns, local residents and shopkeepers cover their premises with sheets of plastic. At 11am a shot rings out and trucks laden with around 130,000 tons of ripe tomatoes enter the Plaza del Pueblo and slowly make their way through the narrow streets of the town which are jam packed with around 30,000 people. For one hour locals and tourists throw tomatoes at each other in a great frenzy. After the hour the town and the participants are hosed down and you would never know that anything so strange as this had happened.