In Spain's Revered Food Fight, There's Only One Rule

Thousands of revelers descended on Bu ol on Wednesday for the annual La Tomatina food fight, where they painted the small Spanish town red with up to 165 tons of overripe tomatoes. Loaded trucks proceeded through the crowd, reports the AP , with people standing in their cargo beds hurling tomatoes at the revelers. Their white shirts soon turned pink and red while American pop songs blasted from speakers. At one point, police appeared to use pepper spray to disperse an area of the crowd, but a festive vibe quickly resumed. The messy melee takes place for over an hour in the town, where buildings are covered with tarps ahead of the festivities. Held on the last Wednesday of August, the festival traces its origins to a food fight in 1945.