Photos: Scenes from Spain's La Tomatina festival — the ultimate food fight

More than 20,000 people from around the world hurled over 100 tons of tomatoes at each other for an hour Wednesday during Spain's La Tomatina festival, all in the name of fun.

The almost 80-year-old tradition started in 1945 as a parade scuffle in Buñol, a town located in the province of Valencia, Spain, and ended as a huge tomato fight among townspeople. Over the years, it has evolved into a wildly popular annual festival billed as the ultimate food fight.

The August event has drawn so much interest in recent years that tickets are now limited to just 20,000 participants. The festival's website also shares rules to maintain safety and respect for fellow participants.

For anyone interested in tomato-slinging like a local, Travel & Leisure has some tips:

Things kick off at 11 a.m. local time when a single firework goes off, and trucks dump more than 100 tons of tomatoes on the ground throughout the square. It becomes a mad dash to grab and toss as many as possible over the next hour. Then, once the hour is up, another firework erupts, and all tossing must end.

There is, however, one more part of this festival that happens just prior to the first firework. That's when the palo jabón, a greased pole with a ham on top, is hoisted into the air, and participants can try their best to reach the top before the tomato fight begins. If the ham is retrieved before 11 a.m., the tomato tossing can start early.

The festival has also grown into much more and now involves a week's worth of festivities, including musical acts, dancing, more fireworks, and a few other parades travelers can enjoy.

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