Buñol prepares for its 79th Tomatina with 150,000 kilos of tomatoes, 30,000 more than in 2025

The Valencian municipality of Buñol is preparing for its famous Tomatina battle, which celebrates its 79th anniversary this Wednesday, with a total of 150,000 kilos of tomatoes already loaded into seven trucks and ready to be launched in a festival that this year wants to be “a little more accessible” and “open to everyone.”

In total, there are 30,000 kilos more than last year, as reported by the first deputy mayor and councilor of the popular festival, Sergio Galarza, who is already waiting for the moment of the carcass that starts the festival in which some 22,000 people of multiple nationalities will participate: “Australians, Americans, Japanese, Chinese and, right now, much more are coming from India.”

“In the end it is a festival that is very controlled, since since 2013 we have had it very limited,” Galarza declared to the media during the truck loading work, carried out in the area intended for the preparation of the Tomatina. As of Tuesday, the “last tails” of ticket sales remained, so the councilor believes that the poster will be completely hung and has hoped that “everything will pass normally.”

The tomato, of the pear variety, is planted exclusively for Tomatina and comes from crops in Badajoz. “If not, it would not exist, since it is not suitable for human consumption. They are already soft, there has to be a type of maturation so that when people pick it up, with just the gesture of squeezing, it is clapped and can be thrown without any danger,” he explained.

One of the new things this year is precisely the increase in the quantity of tomatoes: “Last year there were 120,000 kilos, while this year there are 150,000.” In any case, the economic balance “always turns out positive for the citizens,” he stated. Of the seven trucks that are going to leave on the route, six will do so from San Luis and the seventh will only leave to the Plaza de la Diputación.

“ENTIRE VALENCIA LIVES BY AND FOR LA TOMATINA”

Galarza has highlighted that the most special thing about the Tomatina of Buñol is that, “after 79 years, the people of the town continue to love it and propose it, because in the end everyone who wants to collaborate comes in and is listened to. That grace that the people of Buñol can decide how to do it and what to improve, I think that is the grace that the Tomatina has. The people, the businesses, put bars on the street; the hotels are full, the whole of Valencia lives for and for the Tomatina this week,” he maintained.

For her part, the activist, disability disseminator, occupational therapist and head of the City Council’s Accessibility Department, Regina Martínez, has pointed out that this year the Tomatina becomes much more accessible for people with some type of need or disability.

“We believe that it is important to take into consideration all people who have any type of need, since in the end the Tomatina is an international festival, known worldwide and covers a lot of capacity and people with disabilities or some type of need are also part of that percentage. This year we have opted to go one step further, making it a little more accessible and more open to everyone,” he assured.

In this way, he explained that “some accessibility measures” have been implemented: “We already had an area reserved for people with disabilities, reduced mobility and this year we increased the support of volunteers who will accompany these people, both in this area and outside that area”, with “security measures implemented”.

Likewise, he stressed that another “very important part is the improvement of accessibility in communication”: “These days, on social networks, on the website, we have increased communication to make it easier to understand, we have used pictograms and easy reading so that anyone has all the information on La Tomatina at their fingertips.”